Indian Students Employed Through OTP Program Sue U.S. Agency for Denying Visas Due to Employers’ Fraud
- The Indian citizens have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security claiming that they were not issued H- specialty visas and were unfairly punished for their association with those businesses without a chance to respond.
More than 70 Indian students have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for denying their work visas “because of fraud perpetrated by their employers,” Bloomberg Law reported. The plaintiffs were employed through the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for foreign graduates of U.S. colleges and universities.
The July 10 lawsuit claims that they “did not knowingly engage in fraud despite their employers’ actions,” the Bloomberg report said, citing the lawsuit filed last week in federal district court in Washington state. “DHS denied them H-1B specialty occupation visas despite their subsequent employment at legitimate businesses,” the lawsuit says, adding that the plaintiffs were “unfairly punished for their association with those businesses without a chance to respond.” They further claim that the DHS “violated the Administrative Procedure Act by exceeding its authority and deeming the plaintiffs as inadmissible without a full record of the evidence.”
Through the complaint, “they are asking the court to set aside the DHS’s decision on their visa applications and order that the agency allow them to respond to any fraud allegations before making a determination on their admissibility to the U.S,” Bloomberg said, citing the lawsuit.
Jonathan Wasden, an attorney representing the plaintiffs told Bloomberg Law that “the agency assumed that anybody who had touched these companies was somehow guilty of fraudulent misrepresentations to the U.S. government in an attempt to get a visa or immigration benefit.”
A court document shared by Bloomberg names all the plaintiffs like Malvika Sharma, Lakhan Shiva Kamireddy, Sai Manoj Gaddipati, Siddhartha Kalavala Venkata, and Kalyani Mehul Gandhi, among others. They worked for four IT staffing companies — Andwill Technologies, AzTech Technologies LLC, Integra Technologies LLC, and WireClass Technologies LLC. According to Bloomberg, “each of the companies was approved to participate in OPT and certified through the E-Verify employment verification program.”
Plaintiff Siddhartha Kalavala Venkata, who worked at Integra through OPT after completing a master’s degree in 2016 at the New York Institute of Technology spoke with Bloomberg Law. He told the publication that despite promising “work on projects for firms like The Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc.,” the staffing company “told students they needed to pay for training to further upgrade their skills.” Venkata said he “left within months for a position with another IT firm.” But when he “attempted to change status from an F-1 visa to an H-1B visa last year, the DHS denied his H-1B visa, deeming him inadmissible because of fraud or willful misrepresentation.” He told Bloomberg that he was in “complete pain” after learning he couldn’t enter the country.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wing of the DHS, “117,301 students participated in the OPT program in the 2022 calendar year.
(Top photo: representative image)