President Trump’s “Buy American Hire American” executive order has had a negative impact on the H1-b visa program. USCIS has recently been accused of arbitrarily denying H1-B visa petitions for Information Technology (IT) positions. As a result, multiple companies blame the shift in policy crafted by USCIS and a flurry of litigation has ensued. While USCIS often reopens and subsequently approves several individual lawsuits which challenge the denied H1B petitions, they still continue to deny H1B petitions through their questionable and unlawful change in the rules. IT Serve Alliance and its member companies are collaborating and are conducting a mass litigation campaign to challenge the legality of new rules being imposed by USCIS.
According to USCIS, IT consulting firms are required to specify all third party work assignments for H1-B visa holders, which gives the agency authority to reduce a visa’s duration and allowing it to redefine which firms constitute employers under the program. IT Serve’s attorney correctly argues that such authority rests with the Department of Labor.
Hopefully, the decisions of the federal judges will result in the correction of current adjudication standards. Judges have critiqued the USCIS in regard to the lack of clarity in visa rejections for skilled foreign workers under Trump’s power.
Many IT companies are aggravated with strikingly large percentage of denials and believe that the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services policy is to blame.
USCIS, states that it simply asks for the current law to be applied. The appropriate route for companies unhappy with the visa responses is to litigate them individually at this time and to challenge the USCIS in court.
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