Outsourcing company files lawsuit for denial of Indian worker’s H-1B visa

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Stellar Software Network, a staffing and outsourcing company has filed a lawsuit against the federal government alleging that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration illegally denied Kartik Krishnamurthy, an Indian man, his H-1B visa.

According to a Mercury News report, the denial comes in wake of the U.S. crackdown on the H-1B visa and called the denial of Krishnamurthy’s visa “arbitrary and capricious.”

Krishnamurthy worked at Stellar on the H-1B visa for about seven years until the end of May, according to the lawsuit.

The H-1B visa is normally given to highly skilled workers is specialized jobs and is usually obtained by employers however; it has now become an immigration debate in the Trump era, claiming that they are taking jobs away from Americans.

Many Silicon Valley technology companies have lobbied for an expansion of the annual 85,000 cap on new visas, arguing that companies need to be able to bring in the world’s top talent, according to the Mercury News.

After obtaining an H-1B visa, one can apply for a green card but due to extensive backlog they tend to extend their visas instead.

The issue started in August 2017 when a request for Krishnamurthy’s visa extension was put in and was denied due to the H-1B crackdown that arose from President Donald Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order.

Thus late last year, federal authorities began asking for evidence in regards to the company, worker and job and if they match the visa requirements.

Also, applications for Indian workers were more frequently subjected to the “requests for evidence,” according to the report by the National Foundation for American Policy.

According the Mercury News, federal authorities have said that there is a lack of evidence in Krishnamurthy’s case, though the lawsuit seeks a court order overturning the visa denial.