Your employee was not selected in the H-1B lottery - the employer's options
10 mins read | Sep 28, 2026
Three providers have quoted you three numbers for the same H-1B, and the spread is wide enough that you assume somebody is wrong. Usually nobody is wrong, because the quotes describe different scopes, different billing models, and different assumptions about who does the work when a case goes sideways.
Corporate immigration services covers a wide span of arrangements, and the quotes reflect that span.
Your filing volume and your risk profile decide most of this, and they narrow the field before you take a single sales call. Who is best in the abstract matters less than which category fits those two numbers. Our post on law firm, boutique and managed service covers the same decision for an individual choosing representation for their own case. This one is written for a company buying for a population of employees.
See how Tukki runs an employer's immigration program end to end
What does corporate immigration services cover, and what sits outside it?
Corporate immigration services means an outside provider handling the immigration work for a company's employees: case strategy, government filings, compliance records, audit response, employee questions and reporting back to you. The scope of work is the part that varies between quotes, and it is where the price difference usually hides.
Inside scope almost everywhere: petition and application drafting, filing and follow-up, the labor condition application and public access file setup, RFE responses, and status tracking for each case.
Outside scope unless you negotiate it in: immigration policy design, relocation and tax, dependent filings, consular support abroad, green card strategy across the population, and litigation.
A company filing its first case should read our walkthrough of how to sponsor a foreign worker before comparing providers. Employees asking whether they need counsel of their own have a separate post on whether you need an immigration lawyer.
Start with your own numbers before any immigration provider evaluation
Most HR leads have never counted, and an immigration provider evaluation without these numbers is guesswork. Every quote you receive is priced against assumptions nobody asked you to confirm.
Count cases per year by category, and the mix across H-1B, O-1, L-1, PERM and adjustment. Then count how many are renewals rather than first filings, the employee questions your team fields each month, and the internal capacity you have in hours per week. Deadline density matters as much as volume, since clustered deadlines need a written service level rather than goodwill.
Count the last twelve months, then forecast the next twelve, since cap season concentrates a year of registrations into a few weeks. Our H-1B cap season calendar lays those dates out.
Four categories: law firm, boutique, managed immigration services, in-house immigration support
Large full-service firm. Built for depth and breadth, including litigation, unusual categories, multi-country programs and a bench that absorbs a spike. It is the right call when your case mix includes contested matters, when you file across many countries, or when the engagement letter needs a name your board already knows. The trade is coordination, since the work moves across partners, associates and a paralegal team.
Boutique immigration firm. Built around a narrow practice, usually employment-based. The right call when your volume is steady, your categories are few, and you want the attorney of record to be somebody you speak with directly. The trade is bench depth when volume spikes or a key attorney is unavailable.
Managed immigration services. A provider that runs the program end to end, with case management software and reporting alongside the legal work. The right call when your volume justifies process, when finance wants numbers it can use, and when employee questions are the thing eating your week. The trade is that process pays back only above a certain volume, and our post on immigration case management software covers the tooling side of it.
In-house immigration support with outside counsel. An internal specialist or a global mobility function, with a firm retained for filings and hard questions. The right call above a few hundred cases a year, or where immigration decisions are tied to headcount planning. The trade is fixed cost and dependence on one person.
A fifth arrangement is worth naming, since an employer of record becomes the legal employer and sponsors in its own name. That changes who the petitioner is rather than who prepares the paperwork. Startups weighing the categories have a dedicated post on immigration services for startups.
Cap season runs on dates, not on good intentionsRegistration, selection, filing windows and start dates, laid out so an HR team can plan around them.
How corporate immigration counsel bills: flat fee against hourly, and the RFE question
Corporate immigration counsel bills one of two ways, and both are in normal use. A flat fee moves the estimating risk to the provider, and hourly billing keeps it with you. The difference shows up in three places.
- RFE handling. Ask whether a response sits inside the flat fee or is billed separately, and at what rate. Our post on RFE guarantees explains why that single line moves the real cost more than the headline number.
- Audit support. A PERM audit or a DOL investigation is many hours of work. Under hourly billing you see the cost afterward, and under a flat fee you should ask in writing whether audit support is in scope.
- A refiling. A denial or a second lottery year means the work happens twice. The government filing fees are paid again either way, since they are nonrefundable.
Government filing fees sit outside either model, since USCIS sets them and you pay them whichever provider you hire. For the arithmetic in full, see what H-1B sponsorship costs an employer, work visa sponsorship cost and immigration services cost.
Ask for a worked example rather than a rate card: one H-1B, one RFE, one extension, quoted end to end. What an immigration lawyer costs has the individual-side version of the same comparison.
How to choose an immigration law firm for a company: the questions to ask
Knowing how to choose an immigration law firm for a company starts with ten questions. A provider that answers all ten in writing has already told you most of what you need.
- Who is the attorney of record on the Form G-28, and does that person change between cases?
- Who does the employee talk to, and is there a single point of contact for HR?
- What is the response time commitment, in hours, for HR and for an employee?
- Who handles an RFE, and is it inside the fee or billed separately?
- Who drafts and holds the public access files, and where do they physically live?
- What is the escalation path when a deadline is at risk, and who can act without waiting?
- What reporting do we get, how often, and can finance use it without rework?
- What happens when a case is denied, and what is your position on refiling?
- What is your data handling practice for employee documents, and where are they stored?
- What does the exit look like, including transition of files, timing and cost?
Two more belong in the engagement letter rather than the sales call. The first is any conflict of interest between representing the company and representing the employee. The second is the service level that applies when your named attorney is unavailable.
Representation before USCIS is limited by 8 CFR 292.1 to attorneys, accredited representatives and supervised law students and graduates. A paralegal preparing documents under attorney supervision is standard practice, and you are entitled to know which tasks sit where.
What stays your obligation no matter who you hire
A provider can run these and cannot own them, since the employer is the party DOL and USCIS hold responsible.
- The labor condition application attestations and the wage obligation behind them.
- The public access file. Under 20 CFR 655.760 it has to be available within one working day of filing. It is kept at the principal place of business or the place of employment, and retained one year beyond the last employment under that LCA.
- Form I-9 completion, retention and reverification for every hire.
- E-Verify enrollment and the rules that come with it, covered in our post on E-Verify for employers.
- Being the petitioner. 8 CFR 214.2(h)(4)(ii) defines a United States employer as one that engages the person and holds an IRS tax identification number. It must also have an employer-employee relationship, shown by the ability to hire, pay, fire and supervise.
A written internal policy is what keeps these off one person's memory, and our post on building a company immigration policy has a starting structure.
Changing providers: what transfers and what a new attorney of record files
Files transfer, and representation does not transfer with them. A new attorney of record submits Form G-28 to establish eligibility to represent the client on each matter. USCIS directs subsequent forms to the office where the case is pending. Approved petitions and receipt notices stay valid, so what changes is who receives notices and speaks to the agency.
Ask for the transition of files in a form you can use: approval notices, receipt numbers, LCA certifications, public access files, PERM recruitment records and audit history. Our post on switching immigration lawyers covers the sequencing and the elapsed time to expect.
Immigration provider evaluation by company type
First sponsorship, one or two cases. Depth matters more than process here. Look for a firm or boutique willing to take a small volume seriously, and for a flat fee you can put in a budget. Reporting is not yet your problem, and our guide to onboarding international employees covers the parts that are not legal work.
A handful of cases a year, no named owner. Most companies sit here, and this is where coordination cost bites hardest. A managed arrangement, or a boutique with a single point of contact, usually saves more HR hours than a lower hourly rate does.
A program with a named owner. What you want from corporate immigration services changes once volume is steady, and reporting, service level and audit support become the deciding factors. In-house immigration support with retained counsel starts to compete on cost, and an honest comparison includes the internal salary.
Write the program down before you buy oneWhat belongs in a company immigration policy, who owns each step, and what it settles before a provider ever quotes you.
What choosing corporate immigration services comes down to
Count your cases, name your risk, then compare categories against those two numbers rather than against a sales deck. Every category on this page is the right call for some company. The one that fits a 30-person startup filing two cases a year is rarely the one that fits a 4,000-person program.
At Tukki, immigration attorneys answer the questions and file the cases, and you work with the same attorney instead of a queue. RFE responses are included at no extra charge, and every case is quoted before it starts. The questions in this post work the same way whether you hire us or somebody else.