Lawsuit filed challenging arbitrary rejections of H-1B petitions for not having October 1st as the start date.

March 12, 2021
×Close
A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of seven U.S. employers whose H-1B petitions have been unlawfully rejected, challenges U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) arbitrary and capricious refusal to accept timely and properly filed H-1B petitions which are subject to the annual statutory cap on H-1B visa numbers allocated each year. USCIS arbitrarily rejected H-1B petitions filed after October 1 simply because the H-1B worker’s intended employment start date—naturally—also fell after October 1. Based on this timeline, USCIS created an absurd choice: foreign workers needed to start on October 1 (and not a day later), or the U.S. employer had to misrepresent the intended employment start-date by “back-dating” the petition. USCIS has not rejected these petitions across the board—some with an employment start date after October 1 have been accepted without issue. There is no law, regulation or form instruction that require an employer to specify only an October 1 start date in the H-1B petition. The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court for the District of Massachusetts by the American Immigration Council, and the law firms Mintz Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, PC; Joseph & Hall, PC; Meyner and Landis LLP; Barnes & Thornburg LLP; and Driggs Immigration Law. [reported by AIC]
Upcoming Webinars
VIEW ALL

Related News

VIEW ALL
USCIS Expands Credit Card Payment Option for Fees

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will now accept credit card payments for filing most of its forms. The new payment option is available for the 41 fee-based forms processed at USCIS Lockbox facilities. To pay by Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover, applicants will need to use Form […]

Texas Service Center to Begin Processing Form I-129 for L Visas

On February 12, 2018, the Texas Service Center (TSC) will begin processing certain Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker petitions for L nonimmigrant classification, also known as L visas. The TSC will share this workload with the California Service Center to balance workloads and to provide flexibility as USCIS works towards improving processing times […]

Class Action Lawsuit Seeks to Challenge USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Filed by American Businesses

The American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the law firms Van Der Hout, LLP, Joseph & Hall P.C., and Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC filed a nationwide class action lawsuit today challenging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions for market research analysts positions filed […]