S B

bulent wrote:
    >
    > Stuart,
    >
    > She started working last November and unfortunately she does not have
    > an agreement with the company with the "exclusivity" cause. In fact,
    > I do not think she even has an agreement with them for her services.
    > Thanks for bringing this up, we are hoping that the company will apply
    > for an H-1 soon but in the meantime, we will make every effort to
    > remedy this situation. I guess I will call our attorney pretty soon
    > here.
    >
    > The interesting thing is I have recently talked to our (a very well
    > known and respected) attorney for the H-1 application, and I had
    > described him what the current situation was. I did not directly ask
    > him if this situation was OK but I guess he thought everything was
    > fine since he did not bring up anything about working as an
    > independent contractor with OPT being illegal. I would have thought
    > that as soon as I had explained this situation to him, he would have
    > reacted the same way that you did.
    >
    > We'll see how it goes. Thanks for your input.

Lawyers don't often see OPTs ... they are normally handled by
International Student Departments in the schools. Sometimes the school
has an imm. atty that they use ... this would be the person to ask if
they have one.

As I said, I have no idea if she'll get away with it, nor what the
resulting punishment might be if caught ...

S B

Joe wrote:
    >
    > For what's it worth...I have been working illegally for the past 3
    > years (H1 expired in Feb 2000) and I file my tax returns EVERY year! I
    > never had any problems with INS tracking me down.

What a thing to post ... and in a public news forum.

Not only are you risking things, your employer is also risking
significant fines and the ability to ever hire an immigrant employee
again.