Legal Question in Immigration Law in Virginia

Voluntary Work while waiting for H-1B Approval

I was on F1 visa & graduated in June 2003 with no balance OPT ( I had used up all my OPT before graduation).

Employer applied for H-1B in July 2003.

He assigned me to a project with one of his clients & since I had nothing to do but wait for H1-B approval, I agreed to work voluntarily without pay. I started volunteering in Oct 2003 at client site.

H-1B got approved in Dec 2003. Then I continued with the same client with pay from Jan 2004 onwards.

However my employer just paid me for the month of Jan 2004, & after then he kept on promising to pay wages. But didn�t pay me yet for 3 months.

So I took a transfer in June 2004 & I am working for a new employer.

I had filed a complaint with DOL & they are investigating the case. However from my conversation with the DOL representative, I figured that he did not like the fact that I had volunteered. What will be the consequences of my voluntary work?????? I have not received any form of payment whether directly or indirectly from my employer. However my employer did receive money from his client.

Can I be in trouble for working voluntarily????? Actually my school had told me that as long as voluntary work is in sink with my career goals I can work voluntarily. Is this true?????


Asked on 7/19/04, 3:21 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jonathon Moseley Jonathon A. Moseley

Re: Voluntary Work while waiting for H-1B Approval

First, I am a Virginia attorney and I don't understand from your question why you are describing this as coming under Virginia law. Was the employer in Virginia? Of course, I can't practice law in Colorado.

Second, I don't believe you have any problem as a result of volunteering. However, I would like to check with an immigration expert I work with, if you can contact me at: [email protected] so we can get more details. The only difficulty I could see would be if the volunteering was seen as a scheme to get paid (for the time volunteering) without a proper visa. So if you are not seeking to get paid for the time that you were volunteering, I don't believe there is a problem. There might be some paperwork the INS (CIS now) would have liked to see for an internship, but I believe that is a minor issue. Again, I would like to investigate it further, however.

The other question is whether you should get paid for the work that you did under the visa. I could help collect on that for you. But I would need to know more details. For example, what evidence would there be that you worked and what the salary was supposed to be?

Read more
Answered on 7/20/04, 10:25 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Immigration Law questions and answers in Virginia