A Treez software engineer from India who works in the U.S. and provides services to state-legal cannabis businesses was wrongfully denied an H-1B visa, a federal judge ruled on Dec. 3. A California-based company, Treez Inc.’s services include point-of-sale and inventory tracking software solutions for cannabis dispensaries.
The lawsuit stems from October 2022, when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) denied Treez’s amended petition for Ameya Vinayak Pethe, a “highly skilled and educated software developer,” to work as the company’s director of development operations while residing in Pennsylvania. Pethe’s previous employment location was in Missouri, which is the genesis for the amended petition.
JUDGEMENT
Despite previously approving the original petition for Pethe’s H-1B visa—a temporary, nonimmigrant visa category typically reserved for highly educated workers performing specialty occupation services—the USCIS denied the amended petition, stating that Pethe’s work for a company that provides cannabis dispensaries with business solutions specifically “aids and abets” a federally illegal industry in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
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