Receiving maternity salary after moving to the US on K1

[PelagijaP 67]

4 hours ago, Randyandyuni said:

regardless, congrats on your upcoming baby and move to the US! Sounds like a good year, enjoy it!!

Thank you! Future dad and I cannot be happier, this is first child for both of us. I say first of many, he says first of two

[Ontarkie 13,916]

~~Moved to the Regional forum, from K1 P&P - The OP is asking country specific questions~~

[PelagijaP 67]

12 minutes ago, celie&joseph said:

I was under the impression an employer in the USA CAN fire you under maternity leave, just not for the reason that you are pregnant or on parental leave. They can still use any other reason to fire you while on leave and (if in her country similar rules apply) moving to a different country and not being readily accessible to work could be a reason for that.

 

Just a spin on the same coin.

Here you are completely protected from getting fired if on pregnancy or maternity leave. 

It is government that is paying you- work place is only obliged to take you back to work once you are to return- which you don't have to do if you want to stay home with your baby-in that case you quit after maternity is over. 

[Celie 793]

8 minutes ago, PelagijaP said:

Here you are completely protected from getting fired if on pregnancy or maternity leave. 

It is government that is paying you- work place is only obliged to take you back to work once you are to return- which you don't have to do if you want to stay home with your baby-in that case you quit after maternity is over. 

Yeah, I was reading about it just now. That's a pretty great system for mothers! My honest guess is since you'll be on pending status and you won't have legal status here until your green card, you can't be held accountable for collecting the checks. Is it like the 1000000% most ethical thing to do? lol Probably not. But hey, I'm not a mother however I can understand one looking out for their baby if the opportunity is given so no judgment here. Just make sure you let them know when the time comes so at least you leave on right footing.

 

Best of luck with your baby!!! 👣

Edited February 21, 2019 by celie&joseph

[PelagijaP 67]

21 minutes ago, celie&joseph said:

Yeah, I was reading about it just now. That's a pretty great system for mothers! My honest guess is since you'll be on pending status and you won't have legal status here until your green card, you can't be held accountable for collecting the checks. Is it like the 1000000% most ethical thing to do? lol Probably not. But hey, I'm not a mother however I can understand one looking out for their baby if the opportunity is given so no judgment here. Just make sure you let them know when the time comes so at least you leave on right footing.

 

Best of luck with your baby!!! 👣

That is what I was thinking, I would continue to be a resident of my country since I don't know how fast things move once in the US. And anyway double citizenship is allowed for both countries as far as I know. My fiance is dual UK and USA citizen. First thought I had once we got pregnant was to leave work before going to the US and that is what I told HR couple of months ago-that I probably won't be using maternity leave because I might be moving away. Btw, to that I was told that first couple of months of maternity are mandatory and that I have to use them lol. But it was back then when I was hoping to get my K1 earlier than February. Now I still don't have visa and on Monday maternity leave should start. If by our law I can get it then I don't mind getting it, my only concern was if it will be fine by U.S. immigration system if they see I am receiving money from my 'old' country.

 

Thank you for good wishes, our baby girl (woohoo, a girl!) is getting very big so now with my small frame I look like a wheel barrow. Her dad is not helping me, as if he buys sweets on purpose just to see me struggle ☺️

 

[Celie 793]

14 minutes ago, PelagijaP said:

That is what I was thinking, I would continue to be a resident of my country since I don't know how fast things move once in the US. And anyway double citizenship is allowed for both countries as far as I know. My fiance is dual UK and USA citizen. First thought I had once we got pregnant was to leave work before going to the US and that is what I told HR couple of months ago-that I probably won't be using maternity leave because I might be moving away. Btw, to that I was told that first couple of months of maternity are mandatory and that I have to use them lol. But it was back then when I was hoping to get my K1 earlier than February. Now I still don't have visa and on Monday maternity leave should start. If by our law I can get it then I don't mind getting it, my only concern was if it will be fine by U.S. immigration system if they see I am receiving money from my 'old' country.

 

Thank you for good wishes, our baby girl (woohoo, a girl!) is getting very big so now with my small frame I look like a wheel barrow. Her dad is not helping me, as if he buys sweets on purpose just to see me struggle ☺️

 

I don't think they will mind as long as you're not working for it so you should be fine.

 

Hahah wheelbarrow. Too cute! Let the Daddy spoil you lol when baby girl comes you'll appreciate it, no doubt! 😄

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

5 hours ago, carmel34 said:

This thread reminds me of a brother-in-law and his wife who were Canadians and lived there for many years, had a couple of kids and then moved to the US for college and ended up staying, becoming LPRs, then citizens, and for many years they kept receiving "family allowance" payments from the Canadian government (monthly benefit checks paid to the parents per child under 18) for many, many years, all sent to his parents' mailing address in Canada who deposited the checks into their bank account.  Things like this happen all the time, where people have questionable ethical standards and milk governments for payments when they no longer live in their country of origin.  I remember hearing about this and thinking to myself, "I wonder what would happen if the Canadian government ever found out that this abuse was occurring?"  Sort of reminds me of the stories of social security checks sent to deceased people and a family member not saying anything, continuing to cash the checks...

Each individual circumstance is different. As someone else pointed out, in certain cases, people are allowed to keep the Canadian allowance even if they moved out of Canada.

 

In this specific situation, looks like the OP confirmed that the Serbian government is happy to make the payments as it is one of the rights their citizens are entitled to. That should settles it then.

 

OP as mentioned previously, there should be no problem regarding US immigration that you can receive that money on K-1. You worked hard and that is one of the benefits you rightfully earned. 

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

2 hours ago, celie&joseph said:

I was under the impression an employer in the USA CAN fire you under maternity leave, just not for the reason that you are pregnant or on parental leave. They can still use any other reason to fire you while on leave and (if in her country similar rules apply) moving to a different country and not being readily accessible to work could be a reason for that.

 

Just a spin on the same coin.

I agree to that. However, they have to wait until AFTER maternity leave is over, then fire her if she doesn’t report to work. There needs to be concrete evidence that she abandoned her job in that case. Trust me, I just went through a similar situation with a person reports to me. She went on maternity leave, moved to a different state because her husband accepted a different job. Everybody including HR knows she moved. No one wanted to touch it with a 10-foot-pole. They had to wait until after her maternity leave was over, wrote a letter basically stating that if you show up to work, the job is yours. If you don’t, we will consider it “abandoned”. She turned in her resignation the next day. 

Edited February 22, 2019 by USS_Voyager

[geowrian 22,335]

5 hours ago, PelagijaP said:

Yup, I will need doctor's note saying I am fit to travel, but not older than 7 days before the flight. If I don't feel good or if I am at the slightest worried about the flight then I won't travel until she is born. It is fine for both me and my fiance if it happens she is born here, as long as all goes well with her. 

Yup, that's what you need to do. Good luck!

That said, the airline still makes the final call to board anybody. The risk of somebody giving birth in flight has all sorts of health and legal issues (re: what is their country of birth, any derived citizenship(s) or a potential statelessness, etc.). There's some interesting articles on this topic and how it differs from being born at sea.

Anyway,

 

3 hours ago, PelagijaP said:

That is what I was thinking, I would continue to be a resident of my country since I don't know how fast things move once in the US.

Whatever another country wants to consider you is 100% their business. But be careful of claiming to be a resident of anywhere besides the US on anything relating to US immigration. There are situations where that can come back to bite you.

[Celie 793]

5 hours ago, USS_Voyager said:

I agree to that. However, they have to wait until AFTER maternity leave is over, then fire her if she doesn’t report to work. There needs to be concrete evidence that she abandoned her job in that case. Trust me, I just went through a similar situation with a person reports to me. She went on maternity leave, moved to a different state because her husband accepted a different job. Everybody including HR knows she moved. No one wanted to touch it with a 10-foot-pole. They had to wait until after her maternity leave was over, wrote a letter basically stating that if you show up to work, the job is yours. If you don’t, we will consider it “abandoned”. She turned in her resignation the next day. 

Agreed on that lol I bet that's an HR field day. Rarely would a company want to risk a lawsuit even if they're in the right, not to mention the publicity.

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

6 hours ago, celie&joseph said:

Agreed on that lol I bet that's an HR field day. Rarely would a company want to risk a lawsuit even if they're in the right, not to mention the publicity.

You hit it in the head right there. There was an immigration aspect to it as well, she was on H1B. They did not want the newspaper to read: " Company fires foreign worker who is on maternity leave".