Need info regarding Termination of employment contract prior to immigration

[schyla]

I am one of the many nurses in the philippines who have been waiting for the retrogression to be lifted and closely monitored your blog and the visa bulletin for updates.

I grew tired of waiting for 2 years. I decided to go to another country got registered and employed. I now love my job.

My problem is I want to terminate the employment contract in the US with my employer. The contract states that it will take effect upopn immigration to the US. Currently I'm still in the submission of the DS-230 stage (I haven't submitted it yet). I've laready emailed my employer explaining my decision and I'm awaiting their response.

I know that I have breached the contract and terminated it prior to immigration. In my contract it has a clause stating: Should the employee terminate the contract prior to immigration, then employee shall reimburse the incurred expenses to date. My employer paid for the lawyer, immigration fees. I am willing to pay them in due time. What I am worried about is the legal implications of this situation.

I would appreciate all the information.

Thank you very much.

[suzanne4, RN]

There are no legal implications as long as you reimburse them for expenses occurred. Expect them to be much more expensive than you have anticipated, that is a definite. But the other factor is that they may not give you time to pay and may demand it in full within a certain number of days.

You can expect payment to be in the area of about $8,000 US in most cases and sometimes even more. You get chaged for the time that the staff put into getting you hired and your paperwork done, etc. Not just the immigration fees and the attorney.

I do not want you to be surprised if it is even more than this. Again, it will depend on the agency or employer that you have signed with. Some are quite kind in letting someone out of a contract, and others can be hostile.

There is a well known agency that actually charges $8,000 if you have signed with them and a week later decide that you wish to cancel, before anything has been spent.