Law suit filed by IT Companies against USICS over shorter duration of 'H1B Visa's'

October 16, 2018:

An IT advocacy group that represents more than 1,000 small IT companies mostly run by Indian-Americans has filed a lawsuit against the 'US Immigration Agency' for issuing H-1B visas for shorter than 3 years durations.

The H1B Visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India & China.

These visas are typically issued for 3 to 6 years to employers to hire a foreign worker.

Based out of Dallas in Texas, the ITServe Alliance in its lawsuit 43-page lawsuit filed last week alleged that the US Citizenship & Immigration Services has recently begun a practice of approving H-1B petitions for shorter than 3 years durations.

It said,"These petitions are often valid for only months or days at a time, and some cases are expired by the time the approval is received."

ITServe lawsuit against the USCIS alleges that the agency has no authority to misinterpret the existing regulations & shorten the approval durations.

In fact, the United States Congress has specifically granted power to the Department of Labor & DOL's regulations grant three-year approvals.

The lawsuit alleges that the itinerary requirement put forth by the USCIS is also unlawful.

This is the second lawsuit filed by ITServe against USCIS.

The first was filed in July 2018 in which ITServe demanded USCIS to remove language from their website prohibiting F-1 STEM OPT students working at the third part client locations.

ITServe's Ntional President for 2018, Gopi Kandukuri,"The USCIS has been making arbitrary rules and memos for over eight years, it's our top priority to set things right and hold USCIS accountable to follow the regulations set by the Unites States Congress."

Referring to the recent spate of H-1B denials that ITServe members received, Kandukuri added members of ITServe Alliance are tired of receiving random denials for no reason.

He said,"The new battlefield for us is the the federal courthouse and not USCIS service centers."

Source: Economics Times