H-1B Visa denied, 70 Indians take legal action against US government

Nearly 70 Indian nationals are suing the US government for denying their visas because of fraud perpetrated by their employers.

The plaintiffs—employed through a training program for foreign graduates of US colleges and universities—say they didn’t knowingly engage in fraud despite their employers’ actions.
 

Yet they were unfairly punished for their association with those businesses without a chance to respond, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal district court in Washington state. The Department of Homeland Security denied workers H-1B specialty occupation visas despite their subsequent employment at legitimate businesses, the complaint said.
 

“The agency assumed that anybody who had touched these companies was somehow guilty of fraudulent misrepresentations to the US government in an attempt to get a visa or immigration benefit,” said Wasden Law attorney Jonathan Wasden, who’s representing the plaintiffs.
 

The workers are asking the court to set aside the DHS’s decision on their visa applications and order that the agency allow them to respond to any fraud allegations before making a determination on their admissibility to the US.
 

The agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act by exceeding its authority and deeming the plaintiffs as inadmissible without a full record of the evidence, according to the lawsuit. The agency’s actions were also procedurally deficient because it didn’t notify the visa applicants of the action against them, the complaint said.
 

Fraudulent scheme
 

Foreign students on F-1 visas can work in the US for up to 12 months after graduating—or three years if they have a degree in STEM fields—through a program known as Optional Practical Training. Many international graduates participate in the program to start careers in the US while attempting to secure an H-1B visa or other longer-term status.  
 

More than 117,000 people participated in the program in calendar year 2022, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the DHS component that runs OPT. The plaintiffs in the suit worked for four IT staffing companies—Andwill Technologies, AzTech Technologies LLC, Integra Technologies LLC, and WireClass Technologies LLC.