Tech firm sues US govt over H-1B denial to Indian employee

San Francisco-based Xterra Solutions is suing the US government, claiming immigration officials had improperly denied an H-1B visa to its Indian employee.

The company alleged in its lawsuit that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) improperly denied an H-1B visa to Praharsh Chandra Sai Venkata Anisetty, 28, whom it had hired as a Business System Analyst. The visa denial, made in February, was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with the law,” alleged the suit filed in Northern California District Court.

The Donald Trump government has been targeting firms such as Xterra and several other Indian IT services firms that fall into a class of H-1B employers, and increased its scrutiny of H-1B applications from such firms. It has boosted the rate at which it denies them visas in a bid to cut down on immigration and focus on local job creation.