A former Infosys employee in the US, whose lawsuit against the company for alleged visa fraud was thrown out last month, has now filed a notice of appeal at the District Court of California. A notice of appeal is filed to review a case.

According to filings in courtlistener.com , a non-profit legal search engine, a federal court judge in San Jose in March left the door open for Carl Krawitt — who had filed the lawsuit — to submit an amended complaint if he wished to, after dismissing his case. Krawitt had alleged in his case that Infosys had conspired to bring in Indian employees on B-1 business visas as trainers for a six-week programme at Apple though, as per legal requirements, they could only be brought on H-1B visas, which are tougher to get.

An official statement from Infosys is awaited. The company has three days to counter the notice.

Krawitt, who earlier worked with Infosys as a contractor, is understood to have made the case as a whistleblower and on behalf of the federal government. The San Jose court dismissed the case under the False Claims Act. Earlier, the California court cleared Infosys and Apple of wrongdoing, saying a trainer’s work under B-1 visa was acceptable and that neither firm had attempted to commit a fraud.

Apple claimed that there was no case to establish that this was done with intent.

This allegation is similar to ones made in the past, most notably by Jay Palmer, another former employee who first blew the whistle on Infosys. Palmer had alleged visa-related abuses, which triggered a US Federal government investigation. Eventually, the case got dismissed by federal judge Myron H Thompson.

Visa denials

According to recent United States US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data, Infosys topped H-1B visa denials in FY18, ending September 2018, with more than 25 per cent of its 8,000-plus applications rejected.

Further, according to a CARE ratings report, the top five tech companies suffered a 49 per cent drop in H-1B petitions being approved in FY2018 compared to the previous fiscal.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW