Fees the employer generally must pay
Your required wage must reach you 'free and clear.' A deduction for the employer's business expenses that takes your pay below the required (prevailing or actual) wage is prohibited. The ACWIA training fee and the fraud-prevention-and-detection fee are the employer's responsibility and cannot be passed to — or 'reimbursed' by — the worker. Attorney fees and costs for preparing the LCA and H-1B petition are treated as the employer's business expense.
For the PERM green-card step, the employer must pay all costs of the labor-certification process, including recruitment and advertising and the related attorney fees — these cannot be paid or reimbursed by the worker.
Fees that can sometimes be yours
Premium processing can be paid by the worker when it's genuinely for the worker's own benefit (for example, to speed a personal change of status) rather than the employer's. Later green-card steps that are personal to you — such as the I-485 adjustment-of-status filing — are commonly paid by the employee. The test is whether the cost is the employer's business expense and whether paying it would drop you below your required wage.
Frequently asked
- Can my employer deduct the H-1B fee from my salary?
- Not if the fee is the employer's obligation or if the deduction would bring your pay below the required wage. Several H-1B fees are legally the employer's to pay.
- Who pays for the green card (PERM)?
- As a general rule the employer must pay all PERM labor-certification costs, including advertising and related attorney fees. Some later, personal steps (like the I-485) are typically the employee's.