A Silicon Valley-based firm has filed a lawsuit against the United States government for rejecting the H1B Visa application of a “highly skilled” Indian professional. The plea suing the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been moved before the District Court of Northern California.
The denial by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of a Visa in February for Praharsh Anisetty was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not by the law,” the suit is filed alleged in Northern California U.S. District Court.
The company, Xterra Solutions, had hired Praharsh Chandra Sai Venkata Anisetty as a Business System Analyst. His employment was subject to approval from USCIS. The Immigration department turned down Anisetty’s plea filed by the tech firm on his behalf.
However, newly released U.S. government data suggests Xterra with a dozen full-time workers, according to the suit who is not a heavy user of the H-1B program, having applying for only one application for the Visa in 2018, which appears to have been the rejected one for Anisetty, and another one in 2017, which was approved.
Though Xterra was founded in 2009, the government data shows no H-1B applications by the company before 2017. In contrast, according to the data, major outsourcing companies such as Cognizant and Tata each received about 500 H-1B Visas in 2018.
The H1B Visa program allows tech companies in the US to hire foreign talent if they are equipped with “theoretical or technical expertise“. A cap of 65,000 beneficiaries is capped per year. However, the first 20,000 applicants with a Master’s Degree from a university in the US are exempted.
The company is seeking a court order that the H-1B application for Anisetty is approved.
