H-1B Victory at CA9: Innova Solutions v. Baran

Innova Solutions v. Baran

"Innova Solutions, Inc. (Innova), a technology company that provides services including cloud storage and data analytics, appeals from the district court’s denial of its challenge to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) refusal to issue an H-1B temporary worker visa. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we reverse and remand. ... There is no “rational connection” between the only source USCIS cited, which indicated most computer programmers have a bachelor’s degree and that a bachelor’s degree is typically needed, and USCIS’s decision that a bachelor’s degree is not normally required. ... USCIS’s suggestion that there is “space” (which we understand to connote a difference in meaning) between these words is “so implausible that it could not be ascribed to a difference in view or the product of agency expertise.” ... While it is theoretically possible that there is “space” between normally, most, and typically, that space is at best molecular, and nowhere near big enough for the doublespeak freight train that USCIS tries to drive through it."

[Hats way off to David A. Wulkan (argued), Jonathan R. Sturman, David M. Sturman, Mary Kenney (argued) and Leslie K. Dellon!]