American Immigration Lawyers Association files lawsuit against US Citizens and Immigration Services over H-1B visa

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has filed a lawsuit against the United States Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) over increased scrutiny and denials of H-1B petitions, The Times of India reported Monday.

According to the report, AILA is concerned that the USCIS has changed its method of adjudicating standards in accepting visas, which has resulted in an increase in rejected H-1B visa applications.

Observing this, the body – a voluntary one comprising 15,000 immigration lawyers and academicians – filed two requests seeking documents (especially on wage and speciality occupation determination), which would explain these actions. USCIS failed to respond, which led to AILA now filing a lawsuit in the Columbia District Court, the report added.

 In 2016 technology professionals from India accounted for 74.2 % of the total number of H-1B visas issued by the US and the next year the figure increased to 75.6 %, a government report said here today.

However, there has been a drop in the number of new H-1B beneficiaries from India, the official report has said. China with a little over nine %, comes a distant second after India in terms of number of H-1B visas. The figures for China were 9.3 and 9.4 % respectively for 2016 and 2017.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said petitions for initial employment are filed for first-time H-1B employment with an employer, only some of which are applied to the annual cap. Examples of petitions for initial employment that are exempt from the cap include petitions submitted by nonprofit research organisations or governmental research organisations.

Continuing employment petitions refer to extensions, sequential employment and concurrent employment, which are filed for foreigners already in the US. Extensions generally are filed for H-1B workers intending to work beyond the initial three-year period up to a total of 6 years, the maximum period generally permissible under law.

According to the report the number of H-1B petitions approved in 2017 for workers between the ages of 25 and 34 was 66.2 %, the number of H-1B petitions approved in 2017 for workers with a bachelor's degree was 45.2 %.

In addition, 44.5 % of approved petitions were for workers with a master's degree, 6.8 % had a doctorate, and 3.3 % were for workers with a professional degree. The number of H-1B petitions approved in 2017 for workers in computer-related occupations was 69.8 %, it said.