For Chinese international students who want to rely on companies to obtain H1B after graduation, everyone must be vigilant! After reading this article, I hope you canlearn to protect yourself!

It took real courage for me to tell this story. Every time I think about it, embarrassment, anger and regret fill my brain.

But thinking about it carefully, this is a major lesson that life has taught me. I should speak out so that more people will not be hurt in the same way, especially those students who are looking for jobs in startup companies.

What you are about to read is a true story that happened in the past 4 months. To protect innocent people, the names in the article have been changed.

NightmareThe beginning of the dream

In May 2016, I was living in Dallas and looking for a job in the Bay Area, so I started searching online. I applied for the position of Marketing Director at X startup company, and soon I received an interview call.

After the first round of phone interviews, Company X notified me to fly to Santa Clara the next day for the second round of interviews. Once there I met the company's founders and the small development team of 8 people.

The company’s CEO is Michael. He introduced that he had successfully run an international mining business, was a millionaire investor, and had also served as an analyst for JPMorgan Chase.

The CTO is Charlie. He founded a company after graduating from college. He sold it a few years ago and once cooperated with IBM.

Both of them were very keen to tell me about their past glorious experiences, but they barely mentioned the company's products. They told me that there would be a marketing budget of 4 million US dollars, and they would have full authority to build a marketing team. They all look very mature and experienced.

However, what Charlie said later has always stuck in my mind. I asked him if there was a probation period (this was standard procedure at my previous jobs),he said: “No, I recruit people quickly and fire people quickly. ”

A week later, I received the offer. The contract was modified several times and finally we reached an agreement. The company gave me a relocation subsidy of $10,000, an annual salary of $135,000, stock options, three months' severance compensation, etc.

For me, this seemed like a great opportunity because I had always wanted to go to California. So after a final round of revisions, I signed the contract.

I officially started work on July 5th. The moment I walked into the office, I found that the company already had 17 employees. In other words, in just one month, the company had 9 more employees.

This also includes a young social media manager, Jessica, as the marketing director of the marketing department. They did not ask my opinion at all when recruiting this person. What’s even weirder is that this person calls herself “Chief Marketing Officer” on her social media page.

At that time, there were 8 Chinese students holding H-1B status who were also working in this company as program developers. Although they had limited experience, they were very eager to learn and very enthusiastic about their work. Butin the end they were the worst deceived.

We also have three new business team development members. One of them quickly became a good friend with me (let’s call him Bruce here). He told me that he and the other two members were recruited by the CEO from the startup company across the corridor.

The next week I asked to attend the next investor meeting with Michael and Charlie. I didn’t quite understand why we needed to hold an investor meeting since we had sufficient funds, but I wanted to know the reason.

Our first stop was an "eye-opener" for me. When I was having a detailed discussion with investors from Venture Capital & Private Equity, they asked about the company's products. As a result, our two leaders talked about their own life experiences, connections, and qualifications for a full 30 minutes.

When the PPT finally came to the last page, the investor asked in surprise: "Your company actually has 20 employees? How much do you need to invest in this? What about output? "This is the first lesson I learned from these VC investors: the speed of a startup's cash burn is crucial. Another question is how we are going to enter the market and whether there are any successful cases so far. Michael and Charlie were speechless when asked. And the matter of attracting investment ended in vain.

Bad check

WorkEverything was normal for the first two weeks until payday.

My first salary was not paid on time. Jessica, Tom (the new project manager) and I all received our salaries in the form of checks, and my bonus was not included. I asked and they told me it would be included in my next check.

Except for the three of us, all other employees have not received wages, not even checks. I don't know why. I remember that the company I worked for never paid wages in the form of checks. To be on the safe side, I asked to see the bank stubs. But Charlie told us that we can't do it now, and we can check it after the new accounting system is implemented.

From that moment on, I felt vaguely that something was not right.

It was around that time that Bruce and I began to share our inner doubts, and he actually told me that he lent Michael $50,000, which was all his personal savings! It sounds incredible that an employee of a startup company loaned his personal savings to the boss of the company.

What’s even more frightening is that he is not the only one. Another employee of the company named Bobby also lent $50,000 to Michael.

I asked him why the company still needs to borrow money from employees when it already has a capital reserve of 2 million US dollars. Bruce said that Michael's assets have been basically frozen because he delayed paying taxes.

Shameless lies

The situation became worse and worse in the following weeks, and the Chinese employees began to be afraid - They have not received a penny of salary since June 15.

Several employees faced fines for late payment of rent without wages. Michael blamed ADP (Human Resource Management Tool) for this incident. I don't know if this is another high-sounding reason, maybe.

Between July 21st and August 8th, they kept telling us that the check would be here soon. In the first few days, they said that the check never arrived because of UPS delays. Later, they said that the check on UPS was canceled and was probably lost. Michael said he would pay everyone personally. He asked each of us to write down our bank accounts and give them to him.

Every day, he said he was in the bank and said the money would arrive soon. If the money hasn't arrived, it's the bank's fault. At the same time, we work long hours every day and are always on call.

Every day is filled with promises that can never be fulfilled and all kinds of lies. As the truth slowly approaches, I become more and more anxious and angry.

We have no choice but to wait. As of July 31, 15 of our employees have been owed one month's salary, three have not received their salary for the past two weeks, and three have not even received their joining bonus.

My joining bonus is also the sameIt has been a long time coming, and the company's co-founders always go around in big circles to find various excuses to deceive employees.

I ended up going to DLSE to file a wage claim report. In California, whether you are an employee who is still employed or has resigned, it is free to claim compensation. This is a government-protected behavior. If your company fires you because you filed a claim, this is retaliation and is illegal.

Then I returned to the company and continued my work.

It was at this time that our two investors officially failed. Unable to resist being bombarded with questions about wages every day, Michael and Charlie finally admitted that they were just relying on investors’ money to keep the company running.

But they also said that once Michael goes to court, his millions of dollars will be available to the company again.

Low-level scam

August 4th is the day that breaks the camel's back.

That afternoon, Michael sent a wire transfer receipt from Wells Fargo Bank to each employee's mailbox and left a message saying:

"Here is the receipt, which is the after-tax amount of your half-month salary and bonus. The money will arrive today or tomorrow. I'm sorry for the delay in salary payment."

Please pay attention to the part I highlighted in yellow, and then look at the picture from Google search. The following is a one-to-one comparison.

This is a wire transfer receipt that was downloaded from the Internet and photoshopped and sent from the CEO's email to 17 employees of the company.

The time, account number, and sending date at the bottom of the PDF are exactly the same as the online pictures.

Did the money end up being transferred to our account? The answer is obviously no, I still haven't received my pay stub. Whoever photoshopped this email, I’m sure his IQ is only at the level of a fifth grader, but what’s scarier is the person who ultimately decided that forging wire transfer receipts was a good idea.

Imagine that scammer sitting in front of the computer forging receipts without telling the employee the truth. Then he took the time to photoshop the names of 17 employees, and then calmly walked into the office with a smile and told us that he had evidence of wire transfers! He even told us that if the money didn't arrive in our account, it must be the bank's problem and none of his business.

MeI clearly recall that Michael was sitting next to me and was the first to send me the wire transfer confirmation. I also replied to him in the email, "Thank you." He raised his head and said to me: "I'm sitting here, you can say thank you to me in person! With a proud smile on his face."

That afternoon, everyone seemed relieved and celebrated the arrival of their wages. Michael told us: "Look at these Chinese children, how happy they are to get their wages!"

Imagine how happy and excited you will be when you finally see the salary wire transfer certificate after waiting for nearly a month. You'll start celebrating in no time!

But what awaits you is just another scam, and you are stupid enough to jump into this scam. How would you feel?

Our intern found the original photoshopped pictures and told me: Impossible! No one would do such a thing!

Then I went to check it out in person, and a terrible feeling came over me. I was shocked, it was like a bolt from the blue. I feel extremely hopeless and infinitely angry.

Then I emailed Charlie and my lawyer friend. At that moment all I could think about was justice and my salary!

Big defeat

Those H1B visa employees in China feel deeply cheated because the company needs to sponsor them. They are under tremendous pressure because they have no money in their bank accounts.