Judge Slaps Down USCIS In Significant H-1B Visa Court Case

A federal judge ruled U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) improperly denied an H-1B petition after the agency claimed the position did not qualify as a “specialty occupation.” This is the first known case where a federal judge has analyzed whether the USCIS interpretation of its H-1B regulation is entitled to deference under the recent Supreme Court Kisor decision – and the judge determined the USCIS interpretation was not entitled to deference.

The judge rejected the USCIS assertion that it had the right to deny an H-1B petition because the position did not require a degree in a specific subspecialty and could be filled by someone with a degree in more than one discipline, such as different types of engineering degrees.

In April 2018, the plaintiff, InspectionXpert Corporation (IXC), filed an H-1B petition for a Quality Engineer position that was selected in the H-1B lottery. “In this position, Mr. Kasilingam will use his knowledge of CAD [computer-aided design] and mechanical engineering to develop, design, and execute software test plans, scenarios and scripts for [IXC’s] CAD-focused software in order to identify software problems and their causes,” according to IXC’s letter supporting the petition for Sathish Kasilingam, who has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.