Indian Press Reports on Infosys H1-B Misuse Case in U.S. Court

By David North on November 12, 2011

Sometimes the overseas press is better at covering American immigration news than the media is in this country.

Witness, the recent story in FirstPost, a Mumbai (Bombay) publication regarding the latest setback for Infosys, the huge India-based user – and apparently abuser – of H-1B visas.

Jack Palmer, an American whistleblower, still employed by Infosys in the U.S. at the last reading, had complained, to a federal court, that Infosys had both abused its H-1B privileges and had tried to misuse the B-1 visa for business travelers. (Aliens are not supposed to work in the American economy while on B-1 visas.)

Palmer's case is in the federal court in the Northern District of Texas. Infosys had tried to get the matter placed before an arbitrator, in an apparent effort to tamp down press coverage, and perhaps because they thought an arbitrator would be more favorable to its cause than the federal judge handling the case.

The judge said no. The use of an arbitrator is only acceptable to American courts if both sides are clearly in favor of the move.

FirstPost is a major, business-oriented publication; it gave the story prominent play with a multiple-column headline, a lot of space, and a photograph.

Meanwhile, the latest USCIS announcement on the use of these numerically-limited visas showed that, as of November 2, all 20,000 visas for people with U.S. advanced degrees had been claimed, and that 50,800 of the other 65,000 visas had received petitions. In earlier years, when there was a livelier economy, all these visas are claimed on the first day of the season, which always falls on April 1.