H-1B visa’s tighter rules illegal, tech outsourcers claim in lawsuit

A group of outsourcing companies that use the H-1B visa to fill U. S. jobs with foreign workers have filed a lawsuit claiming recent U. S. government restrictions on the visa program are illegal.

The legal action attacks a February policy change by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that imposed tighter requirements on outsourcers seeking H-1B visas, which are intended for jobs requiring specialized skills and a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Large outsourcing companies have been the focus of several reports alleging American IT workers were sent packing after training Indian replacements who were on H-1B visas. However, the outsourcing companies involved in the lawsuit appear to be smaller players.

The new H-1B rules single out outsourcing firms and require that they provide evidence proving a worker will perform a specialized job, and that the job match thework specified on the visa application.

In the suit, two companies and a consortium that has been lobbying Congress over H-1B restrictions claimed Citizenship and Immigration lacked the authority to make the rule changes and that the alleged over-reach violates theU.S. Administrative Procedures Act.

“Congress has consistently shown the public policy is to increase access to IT professionals and not increase burdens on U. S. companies to retain this resource,” said the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in federal court in New Jersey.

The companies and group filing the suit claim the new H-1B requirements will “choke out” their work by denying H-1B visas and visa extensions.

“Without sufficient employees to meet their clients’ needs, plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm to reputation and ability to compete,” the suit said.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it would not comment on pending litigation.

The groups that filed the suit are the Small and Medium Enterprises Consortium, NAMand Derex Technologies, all of which have offices in India and New Jersey. Derex also has loca- tions in San Jose and Canada.

The consortium was not immediately available to answer questions about its member firms. The two outsourcing companies appear to be much smaller players than the outsourcers that take the vast majority of H-1B visas. U.S. government data show that in 2016 and 2017, Nam and Derex together were granted just 59 H-1B visas, while the top three outsourcers obtaining H-1B visas received a combined total of more than 100,000.

The consortium’swebsite indicates that its members include companies that employ workers in IT, accounting, recruiting and other fields.