Denials Over H-1B Specialty Occupation Increases, Lawsuits Moves Forward

In the past several months, USCIS has denied H-1B petitions for market research analysts, because the agency asserts that the position does not meet the visa program’s definition of a specialty occupation. USCIS has denied at least 66 market research analyst H-1B petitions in the last three years, and six petitions in the first two months of 2020.

Now, a recent ruling by the Federal Judge, businesses seeking H-1B visa petitions for market research analysts will be able to pursue their claims that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has routinely and unlawfully denied those applications.

On September 14, Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, denied USCIS’s motion to dismiss, a victory for nonimmigrants in the H-1B category. This decision was based on the finding that despite USCIS reopening and approving H-1B petitions for two of the plaintiffs, that other businesses were likely to face a similar challenge again in petitioning for these jobs. The judge recognized H-1B denials for this occupation at various service centers involve the same series of occurrences resulting in a systemic pattern of events and are “sufficiently related to constitute a common transaction or occurrence.”
Hence the next step is for the attorneys for plaintiffs to file a class action suit for the market research analyst occupation due to the system rate of denials across all service centers of the USCIS.

We, at ‘Emandi Law Firm’ are closely monitoring USCIS moves in this regard, and will keep you posted with future Federal Court rulings.