US immigration ban: Court dismisses case against H-1B lottery system

TIL Desk/World/Washington- A US court has dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the lottery system adopted to determine successful applicants for H-1B visas, the most sought after by Indian IT firms and professionals. The ruling by a federal judge in Oregon means that there will be no change in the H-1B visa issuance process for the fiscal 2018 which begins on April 3.

As a result, successful H-1B visa applicants are expected to be determined by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) through a lottery system. The USCIS receives more applications for H-1B visas than the Congressional mandated limit of 65,000 in the general category and another 20,000 for those foreign students who have masters or higher degree from a US academic institution.

The case against the lottery system was filed by two firms from Portland — Tenrec Inc, a web development company and Walker Macy, a landscape architecture firm. In its 31-page order last week, US District Court Judge Michael Simon upheld the USCIS’s argument that a H-1B visa application is not considered as filed unless a lottery determines it. “Because Congress left to the discretion of the USCIS how to handle simultaneous submissions, even if petitions are considered ‘filed’ immediately upon delivery, the USCIS has discretion to decide how best to order those petitions,” Simon said.