More companies seeking to retain skilled workers go the mandamus route

Sheri Qualters
The National Law Journal

Companies across the nation are discovering that the federal courts can be used to jump-start their employees' visa applications, stuck in bureaucratic limbo at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency.

The immigration agency's policy of conducting exhaustive background checks to ensure national security -- coupled with a complex and shifting maze of administrative rules -- significantly delays some work visa petitions, attorneys say.

The delays and uncertainty hurt companies that rely on foreign workers with specialized skills and significant relationships with the company's customers, prompting them to strike back through the court system.

While relatively common in the Los Angeles area for the past several years, writ of mandamus complaints filed by companies to compel the immigration agency to process employees' visa applications are springing up in other jurisdictions.