Payment of H-1B Fees

• Filing fees may not be passed on to international scholars. Departments may not deduct filing fees from salaries or require reimbursement from international scholars. US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the US Department of Labor consider application filing fees for employment-based visas to be "employer business expenses." They may not be paid by the international employees themselves.
• Unrestricted funds and discretionary funds may be used to pay application filing fees. The use of research funds to pay application filing fees and the anti-fraud fee should be discussed with the DLC financial officer, who can determine if the particular grant language allows it. Federal regulations specify that any cost charged to research must be "recognized as ordinary and necessary." Premium processing fees, for optional expedited processing, may not be charged to research grants.
• H-1B sponsorship may not be the only option available to some researchers. Alternatives, such as the J-1 visa, can be discussed on a case-by-case basis with an International Scholars Office advisor.

Checks for the H-1B visa fees should be processed via a Request for Payment to Accounts Payable. No purchase order is required. A G/L, 421318, called Fees - Government, has been established. You may use this G/L for all H-1B visa fees, including the $500 anti-fraud fee, the $460 application fee, or the $2,805 premium processing fee.

Separate Institute checks should be submitted for each fee with the other required application documents. Please submit all checks to ISchO along with the H-1B checklist items. Do not send them directly to USCIS, as USCIS will not consider an H-1B petition complete unless the checks are filed with it.

All checks should be made payable to Department of Homeland Security. The address on the checks should be either:

USCIS California Service Center

24000 Avila Road, Rm. 2312

Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 or

USCIS Vermont Service Center

38 River Road

Essex Junction, VT 05479-0001