Indian American owned technology firms file lawsuit against USCIS

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Three technology staffing companies in New Jersey; NAM Info, owned by Indian American Vinay Mahajan; Derex Technologies, owned by Indian American Raj Maan and Small and Medium Enterprise Consortium, also owned by an Indian American, which all rely heavily on employees with H-1B visas, are seeking withdrawal of a USCIS policy which further limit their ability to bring foreign workers to the United States through the H-1B visa program.

The companies allege that the policy, which has already come into effect, will ruin their prospects of hiring through the H-1B visa program.

The Trump administration has been cracking down on companies that heavily rely on H-1B program ever since President Donald Trump issued the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order to end the abuse of the H-1B visa program in April of last year, allowing the administration and the USCIS to introduce a series of measures making it difficult for companies to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.

The policy memo crippling subcontracting companies was issued in February and required the companies to provide proof stating that workers hired on H-1B visa are used only for performing specialized jobs that matched the work specified on the visa application.

The suit alleges that the requirements laid out by the USCIS are impossible to comply with and have already led to denials of extensions to H-1B visa holders and that if the USCIS continues to apply the policy memo issued in February, the complainants will face scarcity of employees, which will, in turn, ruin their business.

“Congress has consistently shown the public policy is to increase access to IT professionals, and not increase burdens on US companies to retain this resource. Without sufficient employees to meet their clients’ needs, Plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm to reputation and ability to compete,” the suit states.

The USCIS claims that NAM Info and Derex Technologies were granted only 59 H-1B visas in 2016 and 2017.