H1b unlawful termination/withdraw deport home country?


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Hi,

I want to provide you a highlight of fraud unlawful termination of employee of the small IT Company based out in Santa Clara California and would not want to name in this post.

When I was on H1b visa working for a company A(with lots of benefits). Company B(minimal or no benefits) offered me the salary(~100K) I asked after clearing interviews including in person interview. They have also informed that they will take care of filing greencard.

Later converted 10% of the gross as performance allowance and deducted from my salary. However they showed immigration department false salary.

Company B sponsored 5-6 offshore developers with $60-70K salary next year and it got approved. After bring down offshore employees, company started blaming me very tiny issues and making it a big deal out of it.

USCIS immigration auditing was kicked in for me fortunately to investigate the salary part of it. After investigation of auditing and salary discrepancy immigration officer warned company to pay the difference amount immediately otherwise it will become a big issue and In order to close the issue, company issued a check leaf of different amount.

Company started asking me to work on multiple projects at the same time and started harassing me that I am getting 2 employee package and I should handle more projects day and night. I was put on 8 hours project billing for customer A and 8 hours billing for customer B. When I asked for couple developer requirement to complete tasks, the company tech head refused to provide additional resource and sent me mail that I have to handle it no matter.

After 4-5 weeks company tech head asked me to schedule a follow up meeting with customer A and meeting was held successfully. However client informed tech head that he did not feel that there was 40 hours billing delivered and expressed concerns.

Company tech head asked me to schedule a meeting one and said since you are unable to perform what client is asking, we have to let you go out of the company. I did not argue with him that I was put of 80 hours billing project per week. I blindly accepted as long as they provide reference, exit procedure and experience letter.

Company issued only asset release letter after I handed over company laptops, badges etc. They didn’t give experience letter. On the last day they didn’t give me the last 1 month salary that I worked and informed that the money is adjusted with the immigration auditing amount they provided.

When I raised a complaint and back and forth discussion, on my H1b will be out of status, they finally issued a last month salary.

I exclusively asked to complete my final settlement but they did not include all my leave balance encashed etc. They threaten me that they will withdraw my H1b and I will be out of status. So I kept silent and jumped to different company.

When my new company wanted me to undergo background check, they contacted my previous companies and all other company check were cleared except this company. They contacted twice CEO and admin and sent them a letter to acknowledge on my employment. Company ignored the voice mail and did not even replied to agency on my employment confirmation.

Now my new company is asking me to close this process as soon as possible.  I have called once and left voice mail to confirm my employment to agency but did not provide confirmation.

 Will you please assist me if I can ask  lawyer to file a case against this company? What are the chances? Will I be able to get all the due amounts from them?

Are there any specialized law firms who will take complete responsibility of fight based on power of attorney and take fees only if they win?

Please help, so I can continue my employment with my new company.

 

Thanks

Shri

 

 

 

 

 

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You are an "at will" employer. Unless you have in hand an enforceable contract that they violated, you have no recourse other than salary payment violations which you handle through the DOL. You old employer is not required to give you any reference or experience letter. In fact, most will just acknowledge the dates you were employed.

 

Payment of "leave" is generally detailed in the corporate policy documents. They are not required by law (in my state at least) to pay for unused vacation and sick time although some do so.

 

Attorneys are unlikely to work on "contingency" on this type of case. If you had a viable case (which I doubt), their payback would not cover their fees and expenses.

 

Move on.

If you did not like the working conditions, you were free to find another US employer or to go back home. You chose to stay.

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So, you were greedy and only looked at the salary offered instead of the whole package...

You should have left as soon as they started to do fishy things.

Other than filing a complaint with DOL, why do you want to throw good money after bad? A lawsuit costs a lot of money, and the outcome isn't sure.

Consider this a lesson learned the hard way.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, I showed my pay slips, previous company manager name, contact details email etc.

 

Also regarding my leave policy, the company never provided me a HR policy documents. When I asked, I was told to contact HR and in fact I did even know how to apply leave whether to send email just to manager or whom all should I include. I was completely busy with work.

 

Based on 10 paid working days leave(as per the appointment letter), I have almost 16 paid leave balance at the time of last day of working.

 

Appreciate any further assistance.

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  • 3 months later...

Can someone help me to find out available options, please? I don't want to keep this open more than 1 year. I started checking with a few attorneys free support.

 

Lawyers cost money.

If you don't want to spend the money, you don't have a case. It is THAT simple.

As I said, you'd be throwing good money after bad. You need to start listening to what people tell you...

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  • 5 years later...

Thank you All, who supported me during those tough time. I did not go with a case. Glad that I left that company at the beginning of shady work(and did not fight for a due month salary). Trust me- I got that recovered just by working hard in the next month only. After 6 years, I am well settled with another company, got my own home, my GC transferred and processed with EB1(and received already).  Its a work and life balance.

Learning : When you are in such situation, take some time to calm down. Don't take any emotional/bad decision and get into any trouble. When you start thinking what next to be done, you will automatically find a path. When you find something shady people/team/dishonest, get away as soon as possible. You just follow the honest and legal path in USA otherwise you never know when auditing/RFE happens and kick out of the country in 24-48 hours.

Whatever happens happens for good. Think Positive! Move on as someone guided me. Thank you everyone.

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