Employment Termination question..pls help?

Cowboy Rance

I would be very careful with this. I understand where the agancy is coming from, regarding your contract terms. They want to recoup their expenses. You would be better off trying to locate a company that is hiring electrical engineers, then getting here and not have a job. The US job market isn't very good right now.

Lucky

I, myself is an electrical engineer here and though I grew up my whole life in the US, I know a few programmers from my work who came here from India/China under 2 years work visas through recruiting agencies. I know that many companies hire (a few) electrical engineers through selective recruiting agencies. Sometimes the agents are paid off their fees at once by the hiring companies and sometimes the agents take out a small percentage as payment from the contract employeeâ€™s salary on a monthly basis even after they are paid by the hiring companies.

It is a little fishy that your agent is bringing you here with no real job offer. Usually, they have a contract job ready for you, so you only come here for that particular employment under contract visa. You cannot change job or leave for another employer under that contract agreement. The agreement is also part of the US immigration work visa contract. If you break your contract by leaving/changing job for another employer, immigration will terminate your work visa and you will not be authorized to stay or work in the US in that situation.

Since they are asking you to work as a consultant until they find you a job, make sure you have the legal rights to work as an independent engineer here. Even if you have a valid visa, companies will not hire consultants without a US work permit here. The air fair and other travelling costs are usually arranged by employers, but some agencies can include it in their processing expenses. It is true that once you are here with a contract job, you cannot leave until the contract period is over or the employer ends the contract at their will.

It sounds as this agency is trying to get you over here so they can make money off of your income regardless of what you earn or how you get a job here. In general, contract workers (including engineers, programmers) from another country are paid very low (much below the average salary). Then the agencies take out a percentage from that low monthly pay as to pay for the expenses and fees they paid.

Eventually, all contract workers are supposed to leave US once their working terms are over. Unfortunately, many don't. They just love to violate our laws here and over stay their visas, and become illegal in this country. Right now we have a huge illegal immigrant crisis in our country. We Americans are no longer putting up with illegal immigration here. So, my suggestion will be to be very cautious and check every inch of your contract and understand if you will be legally authorized to work once you get here.

Phyllis Boulton

From my brief experience, if you are not citizen of the country where you want to work you will have to arrange a work permit well in advance to working there. I know that to expedite a work permit you must have received a bona fide offer of employment and that there are some very important conditions that go along with that. Those conditions may be contrary to the employment contract you have received. This is to prevent people from being brought into the country after paying hefty fees to unscrupulous people/agencies and then being left high and dry with no resources.

My suggestion is to attend your own country's consulate or the US consulate to make inquiries. Taking the documentation that you have briefly explained as well as any other documentation you have received, will support you in asking questions and finding the legal information you need to know. From my personal experience, the place of employment who has invited you to work needs to also put some work and effort into assisting you to obtain a Foreign Worker Permit/Visa. There should be some information that you can tap into on the internet as well. MAKE SURE you are following all the legalities of both countries as it would be unfortunate if you are caught up in a web of deceit as an innocent bystander. You have to take the responsibility to fully inform yourself and understand the necessary rules and regulations.

Here is a link I found that may help you:
http://chennai.usconsulate.gov/visainfo.html

Good luck!

amnestiswrong

Stay clear of these kind of offers. Most states in the United States have "at will" employment rights which allows an employer to terminate an employee at any time with no justification. That also works the opposite; an employee may terminate employment at any time with no justification. The results often effects eligibility for unemployment insurance. In your case the company wants to hold all the cards, and if you are on a contract they would. You could get yourself into some deep problems by accepting their proposal.

Issac

An useful article on Job loss. It could be very helpful for you. You could find it here How to Deal with a Job Loss - A Hidden Blessing in Disguise and the link of the article is http://jobfindcareer.com/Deal-with-a-Job-Loss-A-Hidden-Blessing-in-Disguise.htm
Best wishes. Cheers!
PS: Article source: http://www.jobfindcareer.com/

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