The Catholic University of America

H-1B Temporary Worker in Specialty Occupation

Purpose Eligibility Requirements Duration Job Description & Requirements Required Wage Sponsorship Process Costs and Timeframes Work while Petition Pending Part-time H-1B Employees Working Outside CUA Job Changes Address Changes Study Dependents

Purpose

H-1B status is for the temporary employment of internationals in positions that require the application of a specialized body of knowledge.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for H-1B status the following requirements must be met:

  • The position must be one that requires the application of a specialized body of knowledge. Translated, this means that the position must require at least a bachelors degree in a specific field or closely related field. Positions that simply require any Bachelors (or Masters or PhD) degree do not qualify. The requirement must be more or less an industry standard. For example, most nursing positions in the U.S. do not qualify for H-1B even though they do apply very specialized knowledge in their occupations because most positions do not require a bachelors degree in nursing.
  • The individual must have the required education/experience at the time of filing.

Duration

An individual can hold H status for a total of 6 years. However, Immigration cannot grant H-1B status for more than 3 years at a time.

Extensions beyond the 6th year may potentially be possible if a permanent residency application has been filed and meets certain conditions.

An individual can become eligible for an additional 6-year period of H-1B eligiblity if he/she has spent 12 months outside the U.S.

Job Description and Requirements

For purposes of the H-1B, it is important to clealry define the job duties and responsibilities of the position. The job description to clealry give an idea of the job duties the individual will perform. The education and experience required for the position should be expressed in terms of the minimal amounts of education and experience required to caary out the essential functios of the position.

The job duties and requirements provided by the hiring department will be used by ISSS as they work with the Department of Labor to determine the required rate of pay for the position.

The Required Wage

Employers sponsoring individuals in H-1B status are required to pay a certain wage level. This wage will vary depending upon occupation, level of responsibility and the relative wages paid by the University and the wages paid by area employers for the position. CUA must do two wage comparisions:

  1. Internal wages: CUA must determine what it pays employees who essentially perform similar duties and have similar qualifications. CUa must be able to explain pay differentials among similarly situated employees through legitimate business-related rationale. This is known as the Actual Wage. CUA cannot have a practice of paying international employees less than it pays U.S. workers for similar work.
  2. External wages: CUA must determine what the prevailing rate of pay is for the position among area employers. This is known as the Prevailing Wage. CUA cannot have a practice of paying employees less than what is normal for the industry in the area.

Once these wage levels are determined, CUA is required to pay the higher of either the actual wage or the prevailing wage. CUA must pay at least 100% of the prevailing wage.

The Process

The process does not officially start until ISSS receives the completed forms and supporting documentation from both the hiring department and the employee. Once ISSS receives the Department's portion of the form, ISSS can begin the preliminary work of determining whether the wage offered meets the prevailing wage requirements for H-1B. This is done by submitting the job description and requirements to the Department of Labor for a prevailing wage determination. DOL will return to ISSS their determination of the prevailing wage for the position here in the DC metropolitan area. CUA must meet that wage level if the university wishes to continue.

In addition to doing external wage comparisons, the university must also do an internal wage comparison to ensure that it pays international employees comparably to how all of U.S. employees in that type of a position is paid. The request form is designed to solicit the information needed for this comparison.

Once ISSS has determined that there are no wage issues, ISSS will prepare and send to the hiring department a posting notice, two copies of which must be posted in two conspicuous locations for two weeks. This is a federal requirement that we cannot avoid. At the time that ISSS sends the posting notice, ISSS will also send a Confirmation of Posting Form that is to be completed by appropriate departmental administrative personnel to confirm that the notices have been posted. It is not necessary to wait until the end of the posting period to forward the acknowledgement to ISSS.

Once the notices have been posted, ISSS will submit a Labor Condition Attestation to the Department of Labor and prepare for the Provost's signature all of the Immigration forms that will be submitted to the government. Once the Provost has signed these forms, the petition can be filed with the government.

H Request FormsCUA's H-1B Request Form consists of two distinct parts. One part is completed by the CUa hiring department; the other is completed by the international scholar. These forms were created in Adobe Professional 7.0. You should download a free Adobe 7 Reader prior to accessing these forms.
  1. From the CUA school, the following is needed
  2. A portion that is completed by the international employee. There are two different version of this form: one that is used when requesting CUA-sponsored H-1B status for the first time and one that is used for an extension of a CUA-sponsored H.

Costs and Timeframes

The petition can be filed up to 6 months before the requested start date on the H-1B petition.

Once Immigration receives the petition, it can take up to 3 or four months to adjudicate using their normal processing service. Immigration does offer expedited processing which can be adjudicated in 15 days.

Immigration charges filing fees that vary depending upon the type of service requested. These are costs that must be paid by the University and cannot be passed on to the employee. Obviously, advance planning is a good thing. ISSS, working with Accounts Payable staff, has developed supporting documention that can be used when requesting checks to cover immigration filing fees.

Type of Petition

 Filing Fee
Basic H-1B filing Fee (all H petitions must submit this fee)

$320
Security fee (must be paid only for initial H-1B petitions)

$500
Expedited processing (if need government decision within a month)

$1,000

These fees are paid by the University not the employee. The $500 security fee must be paid on a separate check from the other two fees which can be combined.

Working while H-1B Petition is Pending

A person's ability to work at CUA while a CUA-sponsored H-1B petition is pending depends largely on the individual's existing immigration status.

  • If the individual holds a status that already allows him/her to work at CUA (such as J-1, F-1 on Optional Practical Training, etc.), then he or she can continue to work for CUA under the terms of that employment authorization. However, once that work permission expires, they must stop working at CUA until the H is approved.
  • If the individual does not have work permission for CUA and does not already hold H-1B status for another employer, he/she cannot begin work at CUA until he/she holds CUA-sponsored H-1B status.
  • If the Individual holds H-1B status for another employer and has not worked anywhere without authorization, he/she can begin working at CUA once Immigration has accepted CUA's H-1B petition. They do not need to wait for Immigration to approve the status. This provision is known as portability. However, if the CUA-sponsored H petitin is denied, then the individual must stop working immediately.
  • If the individual is in CUA-sponsored H-1B status and an extension is filed, then he or she can continue working for CUA for an additional 240 days beyond their current H expiration while Immigration adjudicates the extension. This is known as the 240 day rule.

Part-Time H-1B Employees

CUA can sponsor individuals for part-time employment on the H-1B. The sponsorship process and responsibilities are the same. Part time employees carry with them the following added requirements:

  1. On the H-1B petition, CUA must express the rate of pay in terms of an hourly rate of pay
  2. On the H-1B petition, CUA must clearly indicate the number of hours the employee will work each week,
  3. CUA must track the number of hours worked by the part-time H-1B employee each day each week during the period of H-1B validity period,
  4. CUA must pay the employee for the number of hours worked each week as indicated on the petition at the rate of pay indicated, even if the employee did not work.

Terminating Employment

Once an H-1B employee leaves his/her position at CUA, it is necessary to notify the government that he/she is no longer employed by the University. The School/Department in which the individual works should notify ISSS when an H-1B employee leaves the University. An employer may continue to liable for paying wages to a former H-1B employee if Immigration has not been properly notified of the termination of employment.

Working Outside CUA

H-1B work permission is limited to the position and the employer listed on the petition. No other employment is possible without the other employer filing to obtain concurrent H-1B employment.

Job Changes

Changes in the terms and conditions of employment need to be carefully reviewed to determine whether or not it is necessary to amend an approved H-1B petition.

Address Changes

H-1B status holders are required to notify the Department of Homeland Security of changes in their home address within 10 days of moving. This must be done for each member of the family.

Study

H-1B status holders can legally study, provided it does not interfere with their ability to maintaing the terms of their status.

Dependents

Members of the immediate family (spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21) are eligible for H-4 status. Long-term cohabitating partners and extended family do not qualify for H-4 status but may accompany the H-1B in B-2 status. Individuals who hold H-4 status may legally study in the U.S., but may not legally work.