AccuWeather Says Gov't Playing Gotcha With Nixed H-1B Visa

[tacobell fan]

One of AccuWeather's employees is facing deportation because the federal government unfairly denied him an H-1B visa in what the forecasting company is calling a "gotcha game," according to a suit filed Tuesday in a D.C. federal court.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services didn't have any real reason to deny the forecasting company's petition on behalf of Vignesh Natraj, an Indian national whom AccuWeather hired on as an associate product manager, the company told the court.

Instead, AccuWeather says the denial seems to be a punishment for its choice to fill out the application with an overabundance of caution.

"It would be a manifest error and injustice to deny this petition simply because AccuWeather was seeking to over-disclose that it has two locations — even if it swore under penalty of perjury that Mr. Natraj will not be performing any duties in [New York]," the company said in its lawsuit.

At the crux of the issue for USCIS seems to be Natraj's pay. If he works in Pennsylvania, where AccuWeather is based, government guidelines require that AccuWeather pay him at least $60,445 per year if it wants to sponsor him, according to the suit.

The forecasting company says it was willing to pay Natraj more than $20,000 above that amount but says now the government is using a flub with the application as a "gotcha game," telling the company that since it listed New York City as a possible secondary location for Natraj, it would have to pay him $95,500 for the petition to fly.

But AccuWeather said it has no plans for Natraj to ever work in its New York location and only listed it as an abundance of caution because the application told it to "identify all intended places of employment, including those of short duration," and it couldn't swear that the product manager would never have to take a day trip to New York.

If that did happen, AccuWeather said it promised to pay Natraj a prorated salary of $95,500 for the days he was in the city but was told that wasn't good enough, according to the suit.

"In the end, AccuWeather was simply being penalized in a 'gotcha game' for having listed New York out of an abundance of caution, given the government's undefined use of the term 'short duration' in the [form]," the company said.

Natraj is just the type of "incredibly skilled individual" who the government claims fits the bill for the H-1B visa, the company said.

H-1B is a nonimmigrant visa that gives individuals with a graduate education permission to stay in the country for three to six years to work in a specialty field, provided their employer is willing to sponsor their visa.

Representatives for AccuWeather and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

AccuWeather and Natraj are represented by Leon Fresco Holland & Knight LLP.

Counsel information for the government was not immediately available.

The suit is AccuWeather Sales and Service LLP et al. v. McAleenan et al., case number 1:19-cv-02635, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

[lovemystate]

Interesting. Uscis will simply argue it is following the president executive order “but American hire American” which requires very strict interpretation on H1b approvals. But let’s see. There is an inherent contradiction. When govt comes out with a policy based visa like H1b. The intent has to be to approve the visa unless something shows it is not correct . Now it’s flipped on the head and the intent seems to be deny unless they are helpless to approve. Let’s see.

[LazyRohit]

Love da le adidi tappu e case lo

2 locations pedite pay rendu chotla match cheyyali 

@tacobell fannuvayana cheppa vayya ellaki

[Spartan]

its mistake from AccuWeather side.

LCA ela approve aindi on first hand...only one location petti approval techada..

[LazyRohit]

2 minutes ago, Spartan said:

its mistake from AccuWeather side.

LCA ela approve aindi on first hand...only one location petti approval techada..

Junior attorney gadu case file chesademo 

[RunRaajaRun123]

Product manager antiri below 90k salary endira accu weather

[tacobell fan]

9 minutes ago, RunRaajaRun123 said:

Product manager antiri below 90k salary endira accu weather

Product Owner/manager title antha gambiram ga untadhi, matter emi undadhu. Depends on company. 

[RunRaajaRun123]

2 minutes ago, tacobell fan said:

Product Owner/manager title antha gambiram ga untadhi, matter emi undadhu. Depends on company. 

Avna Linkedin lo friends kontha mandhi product manager ani choosi abbo anukunna