Urgent help required on H1B Amendment please !!!

[saraj1983]

My Employer applied for H1B in April 2011 for Client A and the H1 Petition was approved in Sep 2011.
But that time the position for which i was selected went on hold and i did not do my Visa Stamping.

In April 2012, my Employer found a new opening with another client B and started working on amending my H1B(approved I797) since the client got changed from A to B.
Since this is a urgent requirement my Employer did a premium processing of the H1B Amendment.

H1B Amendment was applied on 20 April 2012 and the status changed to RFE on May 1st week 2012.

Along with RFE my Employer was asked to pay the entire new Visa charges which got changed recently.

My H1B peititon was approved in Sep 2011 and it is just an amendment what is applied now from my Employer.

I really dont understand why my employer needs to pay the entire new Visa charges when it is just an amendment of the approved H1B(I797) applied in April 2011.

Is this correct and should my employer pay the entire new visa charges again for an H1B Amendment?

Kindly request your feedback on this please.

Thanks a lot for your help.

[saraj1983]

Just an amendment petition with no request for extension of stay

[kabkaba]

There are fees associated with amendment. Those must be paid by the employer. How does it matter to you?

[saraj1983]

Hi kabkaba,

Thanks for the reply. I guess there is a $325 charge for amendment but not the entire $2000-$3000.

Due to the extra charge, now my employer is thinking about it.

[kabkaba]

The extra charge may include lawyer's fees and such.

[saraj1983]

Thanks again Kabkaba.

I just want to understand one thing here, if a H1B petitions is applied and approved in Oct 2011, and the same petition is amended again
in May 2012, due to the change in visa fee recently should the employer pay the entire visa fee again or just the visa amendment fees?

Then what about the visa fee my employer paid first time?

Just worried that my employer is in a second thought now and not sure how to come out of this.

[kabkaba]

Only petition amendment fee needs to be paid.

[prave]

regarding the amendment

I have similar situation My end client is also changed and its in different state.So they need to fil an amendment and also i need to do a stamping if i go out side US as my visa validity date is expired in my passport .My employer done a visa extension last sep ,when i was working with the previous client and it got approved till 2014.Now i am worried about this amendement ,How much is the risk involved in it.
I also got another offer for a permanent position from different company where i need to transfer my visa.
which one is a better choice doing amendment with the present employer and continue working with them or transferring to the new company.
May i know the reason why you got RFE when you file the new amendment.

[shervin143]

Whether you file the amendment or transfer, they are primirily the same as what gets filed is form I-129. You cannot say which one is better than the other.
You can get RFE or denial on both if the documents are not in order. If your client and work location has chnaged, then you need to file the amendment irrespective of whether it is risky or not. Both amendment and transfer can be filed at the same time. If both gets approved, you will have the choice to choose one over another.

I have similar situation My end client is also changed and its in different state.So they need to fil an amendment and also i need to do a stamping if i go out side US as my visa validity date is expired in my passport .My employer done a visa extension last sep ,when i was working with the previous client and it got approved till 2014.Now i am worried about this amendement ,How much is the risk involved in it.
I also got another offer for a permanent position from different company where i need to transfer my visa.
which one is a better choice doing amendment with the present employer and continue working with them or transferring to the new company.
May i know the reason why you got RFE when you file the new amendment.

[saraj1983]

Hi Experts,

My Employer has replied to RFE contesting the extra fee as this is being a H1B Amendment only.
The RFE requested for my End client MSA which my client was hesitating to give and my Employer has replied to the RFE stating "Client is not willing to share the MSA".
But after a week the client has agreed to give the MSA and still My Petition is in RFE Review State.
Can my Employer now file this extra information (MSA) to USCIS ?

Please suggest.

[shervin143]

Yes, they can send it to USCIS with a cover letter.

Hi Experts,

My Employer has replied to RFE contesting the extra fee as this is being a H1B Amendment only.
The RFE requested for my End client MSA which my client was hesitating to give and my Employer has replied to the RFE stating "Client is not willing to share the MSA".
But after a week the client has agreed to give the MSA and still My Petition is in RFE Review State.
Can my Employer now file this extra information (MSA) to USCIS ?

Please suggest.

[saraj1983]

My petition is approved finally today .

[saraj1983]

Thanks Shervin143.

This forum is really helpful and we get an quick response.