NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Washington, DC, July 13, 2026— A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an Indian H-1B visa holder who has been stranded in India for approximately 18 months while awaiting a decision on his visa application, a ruling that could make it more difficult for similarly situated applicants to challenge lengthy consular delays in court.
In a July 10 opinion, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly dismissed the lawsuit brought by Navdeep Sharma, an employee of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), who sought a court order requiring the U.S. State Department to adjudicate his H-1B visa application.
While expressing sympathy for Sharma’s predicament, Kelly concluded that the court could not justify moving his case ahead of countless others awaiting visa decisions.
“I can see no reason to bump him to the front of the line,” the judge wrote.
The ruling highlights a growing legal hurdle for foreign professionals—including thousands of Indian nationals working in the United States on H-1B visas—who travel abroad for visa stamping and become caught in prolonged “administrative processing,” often with little indication of when their cases will be resolved.
According to court filings, Sharma had been living in Georgetown, Texas, with his wife and two children, all U.S. citizens. After U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved an extension of his H-1B employment, he traveled to India to obtain a new visa stamp at a U.S. consulate.
Instead of receiving the visa, however, his application remained pending following his interview, leaving him unable to return to the United States for about 18 months.
Sharma sued the federal government, arguing that the delay was unlawful and asking the court to compel the State Department to make a decision on his application.
Judge Kelly rejected that argument after applying the legal framework established in Telecommunications Research & Action Center v. FCC—commonly known as the TRAC factors—which courts use to determine whether an agency has unreasonably delayed action.
The court acknowledged the hardship caused by Sharma’s prolonged separation from his family but found that ordering the government to act on his case would effectively place him ahead of other visa applicants experiencing similar delays.
The decision reflects a broader trend in federal courts, particularly in the District of Columbia, where judges have increasingly declined to intervene in visa-processing delays absent extraordinary circumstances. Courts have generally held that they should not reorder agency priorities simply because one applicant has turned to litigation.
For Indian professionals, the ruling is especially significant. Indians account for the overwhelming majority of H-1B visa holders in the United States, and many travel home each year for visa renewals after receiving USCIS approval to continue working. While most return without incident, some become trapped overseas when their applications enter extended administrative processing.
Immigration attorneys have increasingly responded by filing mandamus and Administrative Procedure Act lawsuits seeking to compel the State Department to act. This latest decision, however, suggests that an 18-month delay—by itself—may not be enough to persuade some courts that government action has become legally unreasonable.
The ruling does not eliminate such lawsuits altogether. Federal judges in other jurisdictions have reached different conclusions, with some ordering the government to adjudicate delayed visa applications when the circumstances warranted judicial intervention.
Still, Sharma’s case reinforces an important reality for H-1B workers facing lengthy delays abroad: family separation, financial hardship, and an extended wait may not, on their own, be sufficient to convince a court to order faster action.
For thousands of Indian professionals who rely on international travel for visa renewals, the decision serves as a reminder that even after USCIS approves an H-1B extension, the final step of obtaining a visa stamp abroad can remain an unpredictable—and, in rare cases, prolonged—process.
