Nearly 70 Indian nationals are suing the US government for refusing their visas due to fraud by their employers.

The plaintiffs, who are employed as part of a training program for foreign graduates from US colleges and universities, allege that despite actions by their employers, they did not knowingly engage in fraud.

Yet they have been unfairly punished for their association with these companies without having the opportunity to respond, such a legal action filed Thursday in federal district court in Washington state. The Department of Homeland Security denied workers H-1B visas for specialty jobs even though they were subsequently employed at legitimate companies, the complaint said.

“The agency believed that anyone who touched these companies was somehow guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation to the US government in order to obtain a visa or immigration benefits,” said Jonathan Wasden, attorney at Wasden Law, who is representing the plaintiffs represents.

The workers are asking the court to overturn DHS’s decision on their visa applications and order the agency to allow them to respond to any allegations of fraud before deciding on their admissibility in the United States.

The agency violated the Administrative Procedures Act by exceeding its powers and declaring the plaintiffs inadmissible without full evidence, the lawsuit states. The agency’s approach was also procedurally flawed, as it failed to inform visa applicants of the measures taken against them, the complaint said.

Fraudulent Scheme

Foreign students on F-1 visas can work in the United States for up to 12 months after graduation—or three years if they have a STEM degree—through a program called Optional Practical Training. Many international graduates join the program to pursue careers in the United States while obtaining an H-1B visa or other longer-term status.

More than 117,000 people took part in the program in calendar year 2022, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the DHS component running OPT.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit worked for four IT recruitment firms — Andwill Technologies, AzTech Technologies LLC, Integra Technologies LLC, and WireClass Technologies LLC. Each of the companies has been approved to participate in the OPT and certified through the E-Verify employment verification program.

According to the lawsuit, DHS later uncovered the companies’ plan to defraud the government, schools and overseas students.

“Rather than protecting the students, however, DHS later attempted to punish them as if they were co-conspirators who knowingly participated in the fraudulent operation,” the complaint reads.

“Total Pain”

Plaintiff Siddhartha Kalavala Venkata worked at Integra through OPT after completing a master’s degree from the New York Institute of Technology in 2016. The company was listed as one of the largest participants in the OPT program and as of 2019 employed more than 700 student visa holders.

Integra promised to work on projects for companies like Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc. Instead, the staffing company told students they would have to pay for the training to further improve their skills.

Venkata left within months to take a job at another IT company and last year attempted to change status from an F-1 visa to an H-1B visa. But DHS denied him his H-1B visa and deemed him ineligible for fraud or intentional misrepresentation. Venkata said he was in “complete pain” after learning he would not be allowed to enter the United States.

“If I made a mistake, I would accept it. It was someone else’s mistake,” he said in an interview. “The USA gave me a lot of opportunities that I can’t use now.”

Venkata and other plaintiffs who were denied an H-1B had to leave the country and apply for visas at a US consular office. However, consular offices typically say that DHS has found ineligibility and that applicants must seek legal assistance from that agency — even though they didn’t have a forum to do so.

The immigration and nationality law requires DHS to provide notice of actions such as visa sanctions and an opportunity to submit evidence in response, the lawsuit states.

In determining that an applicant provided false information in order to obtain a visa, it must also be determined that the visa holder was aware that they had provided false information and that it was relevant to the agency’s final action, states in the complaint. However, in this case, the plaintiffs were never informed of the findings made against them before the visa was finally refused.

“DHS needs to go through the process of actually providing notice to affected parties and giving them an opportunity to respond,” Wasden said.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is Sharma v US Department of Homeland SecurityWD Washington, No. 2:23-cv-01227, Complaint filed 08/10/23.