USCIS to Reject Cap Cases with Incorrect Payment or if Checks Bounce
29 Mar 2017The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will reject any H1B cap case filed with a fee payment that is “… not honored by the bank or financial institution,” (e.g., a check ‘bounced’ for insufficient funds). This is a change from prior years, when the petitioner was given the opportunity to rectify the payment issue within a short timeframe, rather than having the case denied or rejected outright.
Fee Requirements for Cap-Subject H1B Petitions
The base filing fee for an H1B petition is $460. In addition, there is an American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA) fee of $1,500 on cap cases for petitioners with more than 25 fulltime employees, or $750 for petitioners with 25 or fewer fulltime employees. H1B cap cases must also include a payment of $500 for the fraud prevention and detection fee. All checks must be made payable to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
A lack of proper payment, or any error in the required payments, may result in rejection or denial of an H1B. Petitioners should ensure that the H1B petition includes the full payment required. Further, one must be careful to ensure that all checks are signed, legible, and properly dated.
Conclusion
The USCIS is primarily funded through fees collected from stakeholders. So, it is little wonder that a failure to provide proper filing fees can result in the speedy rejection of a petition. Petitioners must ensure that all the required fees are paid in order to have any chance of approval for an H1B cap case.
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