Pros
- A very good on boarding team for H1B employees - Good support for immigration and the immigration team is very efficient and friendly - Pays on time and tracks timesheets in a very timely manner - The individual contacts assigned for H1B contractors are always available, helpful and fixes the issues very promptly, but they do seems to leave or move to other positions within the company often, so at times you wonder who is your contact now, but it is easy to find out or find the others who can help you. - The point of contacts for you and other employees you work with genuinely care and try to address the concerns , but somethings like health insurance, are set for the whole H1b folks by company and I doubt if they can make a difference in that case alone.
Cons
- H1B folks are not really offered the benefits like the other local employees ( I do not have proof that the non H1b employees are offered better insurance but I guess they do, or else, majority of their salary would just go into insurance premiums, so there has to be a better rate for employees not on H1B) . The job title itself is full time contract employee. PTO and sick leaves are available to some, but not to all, it depends on what you negotiated at the time of accepting the job. If the billing rate is higher these benefits are not offered. My main concern from day 1 has been the extremely expensive health insurance offered to contractors working on H1B. It was the highest premium I have ever heard of or paid in my whole life and it kept going up each year. For a family of 4 my health insurance premium is approx 1800 USD per month. They offer a basic insurance but it does not cover ER, IP OP , Surgeries or any other essential coverage. So it is risky for families to opt for that basic coverage . The other coverages are extremely costly. And family deductibles are so high, you will never reach it normally so for each doctor visit or lab or xray , you still pay from your pocket , it feels even ridiculous to discuss the health insurance and benefits and deductibles with friends and people working in other companies. There was continuous increase in premiums every year but my billing rate stayed the same . I do agree billing rate at 62 $ per hour was good on paper but as insurance cost is 11 dollars per hour, effectively it is not that great. The benefits are bearable only if you are single and are willing to take risks by opting for basic coverage. For families, the company is not supportive atleast in terms of PTOs and cost of Insurance, and I think the intention is for families to not opt for the coverages or find the coverage elsewhere. Additionally, since there is no PTO or sick days, if kids get sick, you take off and lose the salary. I can say from experience, if you have family and are planning to opt for the benefits and coverages, you will be living paycheck to paychek like I do. But in paper you have a great salary. Yes, no one is forcing you to stay with this company. But if you do, you are left without a major chunk of your earnings if you choose health insurance and benefits via company. Apart from this one issue which in my case is a significant problem, the company, policies and supporting staff are just amazing in their job.