Tips For Consulting Companies Before Sponsoring H1B Petition

Tips For Consulting Companies Before Sponsoring H1B Petition

International candidates who want to work with the foreign companies or international students who want to continue their work in USA after the expiration of F1 visa can apply for the H1B visa. Through the H1B visa these people can enter USA or continue their stay in USA. In any case the file or the application for the candidate has to be carried out by the employer of the employee. It is the kind of sponsorship provided by the company for the hired professional employee. Any US employer can sponsor the H1B petition if it has IRS tax number. Here are some tips for consulting companies before sponsoring H1B.

Tips For Consulting Companies Before Sponsoring H1B Petition

The company cannot offer the H1B sponsorship randomly to any candidate. The candidate to be eligible for the service needs to hold at least a bachelor’s degree. This is the minimum requirement; apart from it the candidate must have relevant and sufficient field experience. The approval of H1B visa makes the candidate’s legal stay in USA valid for minimum of 3 years and maximum of 6 years. Consulting Companies that sponsor H1B visa has to take care of certain rules and regulations implemented in US law.

Getting H1B visa can be easy for large and well established company as compared to small sized startup. Yet there are certain fixed rules which apply equally on both the kinds of firms without showing bias nature.

The first step for consulting companies who sponsor H1B visa application for the candidate is to file the Labor condition application in co-ordination with US Department of Labor.

The labor condition application acts as a proof or evidence having long list of statements which is in a way terms and conditions that assets the responsibility indicating that hiring the employee won’t affect the USA labors in any adverse manner.


It is advisable to see:


The statements in the LCA are:

  • The employer will pay the employee the exact wage for the deserving position
  • The employer will give the employee same benefits as deserved by the position
  • The employer ensures that employee will not have negative impact on company
  • The employer should be clear about there being no dispute or ban on working for the position

In the LCA the employer has to note actual wage and the paid wage. The employer explicitly has to mention the working conditions, mention about strikes or lockouts.

Filing the LCA is the foremost requirement and is compulsory. Once the procedure is done, LCA becomes public property available to anyone who demands for it.

Second step for Consulting Companies who sponsor H1B is to file the H1B visa application and wait for the result. The result given by the visa officer can be positive or negative; this variation in results depends on many factors of the company. This is the phase where the startups face a hard time getting approval for their new hiring and situation might get sticky.

The basic demand of USCIS for the H1B visa approval is that company should be well and sufficiently established having the capability to employ the hiring employees. The company should be able to show the proper cash flow which indicates their financial capacity to pay employee wages according to norms of US labors law.

Company should provide the proof of having more money which shows giving more salary to employee and also legal proof of more business. Showing the money in account can be simple task for a well-established high earning firm but it can be troublesome task for small startups. It requires startup to show the evidence of the income through the yearly turnover or venture capital. This is the clause sufficient to get the visa acceptance but not enough for the approval. The startups require proving their viability including business plan, employee contracts or lease for office space.

Assembling the documents can help in proving the legitimacy of the company and its business. Along with the entire document, tax return report can also be submitted. It can prove to be a valuable asset during the process of filing H-1B visa application. The company will also have to be of sufficient size having a 4 member team may suffice and have the appropriate legal structure as these will be scrutinized along with everything else.

If a startup is able to prove their fiscal responsibility for the employee, the filing fees themselves should not be a challenge but it is worth noting that applying for an H-1B visa can cost high amount not including attorney’s fees.

So if you have enough money in the bank to support the employee’s salary AND support the business then these are typically sufficient, but there will be a number of items you need to assemble to show the viability of your business. The more money the company holds in bank the less it has to worry. The more legitimate the company is, more is the success rate of getting approval of H1B visa

Startups can file for the H1b visa for the candidate and have the positive result if they follow some tips Startups do face; immigration issues for both founder and employees but if follow the guidelines these can be resolved fast and in the cost efficient manner. A hefty monetary amount is involved in filing the application and thus startup can take the help of fellow mates.

The toughest point for the startup is when the company partner seeking for H1b visa. The crux of this clause intends to mean that H1B visa seeker himself is a partner in the startup, visa approval may become more muddled. This situation closely violates the condition of the USCIS for the H1B visa which enforces to have the employee and the employer relationship. So when the person himself is the co-founder of founder he has the responsibility of hiring and firing which does not make him employee.


You might like to see:


The USCIS for such typical cases have made provision which states that startups can provide verification of having separate Board of Directories excluding the candidate and that board has the legal power of hiring, firing, paying employee, supervise and control the employment of the beneficiary. This assures that there is a different committee to check on the beneficiary and which makes the H1B visa attainable through USCIS.

Whether the employee applies through a small startup or a large company H-1B visa itself is not a gateway to a green card. It is a work visa rather than an immigrant visa. If a startup founder finds great success in the U.S. and wants to stay beyond the six-year limit, he or she will have to begin an entirely new process of immigration applications and paperwork.

If an employee is employed but is not allotted any work presently then he is known as a benched employee. According to the law of USA, the company who petitioned the USCIS to grant the H1B Visa is considered the employer which sponsors the H1B visa petition for its employee. The certain criteria which the company should keep in mind according to regulations of LCA are:

  1. Foreign worker is eligible to receive the compensation even though there is no immediate work
  2. In any condition the employer cannot delay the payment of foreign employee giving lame reason
  3. If the employer violates the payment of employee then they have to face the related consequences
  4. The compensation is not offered for the leaves employee take for personal reasons.
  5. Employers are also bound to pay their H1B employees even when the employer experiences a temporary shutdown in its operations.

The Prerequisites 

Whether small or large the company should fit in the definition of US employer. “A Person, firm, corporation, contractor or other association or organization in the United States with an IRS tax identification number known as a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN).”  There is compulsion on showing the relationship of employee/employer. It is mandatory to file the application of LCA to DOL. Only after the clearance from DOL the application goes to USCIS for the further review. According to the market wage of the company the visa application is accepted or rejected.

Specialty Position and Educational Requirement

The position of the designation matters while filing the H1B application for the employee. Some of the positions require the candidate to have graduation of minimum bachelor’s level while others not even require that. All the professional positions require bachelor graduation to be eligible for visa. The candidates may like to know about OPT Jobs in USA.