US court dismisses lawsuit against Apple, Infosys

San Francisco, March 15 (IANS) A US court in the state of California has dismissed lawsuit against Apple and Infosys over allegations that it abused the visa system to save money.

The California federal judge nixed a whistleblower's suit accusing Apple of bringing two trainers from India into the country using B-1 visas instead of the necessary and more expensive H1B, AppleInsider reported on Thursday.

The lawsuit claimed that Apple and Infosys "conspired to have two Indian nationals enter the United States on a business B-1 visa to provide training at Apple in violation of immigration laws".

The suit, filed by Carl Krawitt who is a former contractor for Infosys, said the two trainers were brought in under the wrong visa and that Apple should have acquired the more expensive and numerically-capped H1-B visas for the pair.

A B-1 visa is used to allow non-immigrants enter the US for business purposes but on a temporary basis and with limitations.

The lawsuit claimed Infosys executives knew the company "lacked sufficient foreign nationals on H1-B visas to legally perform the classroom training sessions at Apple" that the company was contracted to provide, and that "only Indian foreign national workers on B-1 visas were available to perform services" for Apple at the time, said the report.

Apple, however, argued its trainer's activities were permissible under the B-1 visas.

"The court determined that the trainers' work under the B-1 visa was acceptable, and that neither Apple nor Infosys were attempting to commit fraud," the report noted.