Reimbursement of Gov't Filing Fee for Rejected H1B Cases
Posted Jun 16, 2006
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There is concern surrounding procedures for the return of filing fee checks for H1B cases that were mailed but did not reach before the H1B cap was met. As regular MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers know, for fiscal year (FY) 2007, the H1B cap was reached on Friday, May 26, 2006. This date is more than four months before the start of that fiscal year, on October 1, 2006! [See our June 1, 2006 article, NewsFlash! H-1 Cap Reached on May 26, 2006, available on MurthyDotCom.]
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As the USCIS did not make the announcement until June 1, 2006 that the H1B cap had been met several days before, there were many cases filed by H1B employers, based on the incomplete information that was periodically being released by the USCIS on the usage of regular H1B numbers. Those H1B petitions that reached the USCIS after May 26, 2006 will be rejected by the USCIS. The USCIS has confirmed that the filing fee checks for all H1B petition filings received after May 26, 2006, will be returned.
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In some cases in the past, however, the USCIS incorrectly issued receipt notices and cashed checks after the H1B cap was reached. Therefore, if an H1B petition package is returned without the USCIS filing fee checks, the H1B employer / petitioner should contact the USCIS to determine the status of the filing fee checks. If the checks were cashed in error, they cannot be returned by the USCIS, but the employer should dispute the fees. If the USCIS confirms the error, the U.S. Treasury Department, Debt Management Office is supposed to issue refunds of the USCIS filing fees to these H1B employers or petitioners.