The FY05 Omnibus Appropriations Act passed by Congress and signed by the President created a Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee of $500 which must be paid by departments seeking a foreign national's INITIAL H-1B for employment at OSU, or those departments seeking to hire a foreign worker who is changing from another H-1B employer to OSU. The only H-1B petitions exempt from paying this fee are those that seek to amend or extend the stay of the foreign national at the current H-1B employer. This new $500 fee applies to all petitions filed with the united states citizenship and immigration service (uscis) on or after March 8, 2005. The fee must be paid by the department, not by the employee.
This new fee is in addition to the standard H-1B petition processing fee of $185 and the premium processing fee, if applicable.
Due to changes at the US Department of Labor and lengthy processing delays at the USCIS Nebraska Processing Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, the entire coordinated H-1B process is currently taking approximately six months. Four to five months of that time is at the USCIS stage. Please submit all H-1B requests to OIE six months before the intended start date; this is the earliest H-1B rules permit processing to begin.
We recommend that you regularly check I-9 documents for your foreign employees, so that extensions can also be started 6 months before the current period of H-1B expires. Please note that use of the USCIS $1000 Premium Processing Service ensures rush service ONLY at USCIS; it cannot speed up processing time at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), or at OIE. Cases submitted to OIE less than six months in advance of the start date are much less likely to be approved by the start date unless the USCIS $1000 Premium Processing Service is used.
Note: OIE cannot honor requested H-1B start dates that are less than one month from the date of receipt in OIE, whether accompanied by a premium processing fee or not. OIE will modify the start date of such requests or refer departments to an outside attorney as the situation requires. We ask that you plan ahead to ensure sufficient processing time.
First, new regulations will now require employers to pay 100% of the prevailing wage instead of 95% as permitted under the old rule.
In addition, changes at ODJFS may result in higher prevailing wage determinations for OSU positions than in the past, meaning that the offered salary may no longer be sufficient to satisfy DOL wage regulations. This could result in required salary levels which are several thousand dollars higher than the offered salary. Careful wording of position descriptions may help to moderate the prevailing wages. In all instances where an employee could do the job without any experience, state "experience desired" rather than "experience required" in the position description. Do not overstate minimum requirements!
Also, as a reminder, ALL position descriptions used for H-1B sponsorship must state the required field or fields of study for the position (e.g., PhD in Mathematics, MS in Biochemistry, BS in Electrical Engineering). H-1B requests submitted with incomplete information on the position description will result in a delay in processing until a sufficient position description is submitted to OIE.
Departments unable to meet the new criteria or otherwise qualify for the H-1B may still be able to sponsor individuals for J-1 exchange visitor status. Consult a Foreign Scholar Adviser in OIE on a case-by-case basis as the need arises.
We hope that providing this information will help us all work together proactively to adapt to the new realities surrounding the H-1B temporary worker program. Let us know if you have any questions.
Office of International Education
The Ohio State University
100 Oxley Hall
1712 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Tel: (614) 292-6101
FAX: (614) 292-4725
Email: oie@osu.edu
http://www.oie.ohio-state.edu