US Reports Extensive Fraud In H-1B Visa Applications
NEW YORK, NY (IANS) – US immigration officials have reported that they have discovered extensive fraud in the huge surge of 61 percent in applications filed for the 2024 fiscal year allocation of temporary work visas, known as H1-B, and promised a crackdown.
The nationality breakdown was not immediately available, but about 70 percent of the H1-B visas have gone to Indians in previous years.
US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) has “undertaken extensive fraud investigations, denied and revoked petitions accordingly, and is in the process of initiating law enforcement referrals for criminal prosecution”, the agency said on April 28.
According to the agency, some companies applying for H1-B visas may have colluded to submit multiple applications for the same person.
The H1-B visas are allocated through a lottery system and having several applications for the same person increases their chances of getting the coveted visa.
Companies file applications on behalf of people they want to hire to work in the US.
The agency reported a gigantic increase in the number of applications received for the 2024 fiscal year starting October: 780,884, which was 296,957 more than the previous year’s 483,927.
“A large number of eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations – much larger than in previous years – has raised serious concerns that some people may have tried to gain an unfair advantage by working together to submit multiple registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary,” the agency said.
“This may have unfairly increased their chances of selection,” USCIS said, adding, “We remain committed to deterring and preventing abuse of the registration process, and ensuring only those who follow the law are eligible to file an H-1B cap petition.”
It said that those suspected of fraud could be referred to other federal agencies for further investigation and prosecution.
The agency said that it found 408,891 applicants with multiple registrations for the lottery this time, compared to 165,180 last year.
It said that 110,791 applications were approved for the 2024 fiscal year.
Tony Tiny
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Not surprised coz most recruiters are Indians who coach applicants how to lie and deceive the govt. Ots been going on for years and blame to govt employees who Davy detect fraud.
May 2, 2023Joe Pandit
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Totally Agree. I believe that the US govt should jail the recruiters who file or help file multiple applications and debar them as recruiters for all future recruitments
May 3, 2023Ram
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Recruiters are scape goats here, it’s the people running those shady consultancies are to be blamed. Recruiters merely doing this jobs to meet their ends. Most of those recruiters are either working from India or H4 EAD trying to gain some experience.
May 3, 2023acj
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Its a matter of time.It will change.some because of USA economy slowing down and other because interest in settling abroad is dimnishing now.Those who are trapped between USA/ India because of kids education and already being there in last 10/13 years are the ones mostly filing multiple entries as USA GC for indians is not possible in ones life time if you landed in USA after 2010/2011.USA government should also reform that before pointing out H1B multiple entries and different companies can file for same individual under law . Thats not a fraud.
May 4, 2023Khalid Saeed
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Not surprised because Indian are are always miss using any any loophole in system same is in producing fake clinal studies in Past.
May 3, 2023Imran
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Not only multiple H1B applications. They also work on multiple jobs illegally. Agency should investigate the IT consulting companies for these frauds.
May 3, 2023Ali Imtiaz
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Indians are the top committing this fraud having fake degrees and their government is involved in this scam, they get fake documents, college, universities degrees to send their people abroad
May 3, 2023D. Ham
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I sincerely hope they bring the phone support for business back to the United States. I’m so tired of these scam calls from India.
May 4, 2023Joe Pandit
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Hard punishment is the only solution for those smart crooks. The US govt make sure that those frauds do not get jobs or entry into the US in future
May 3, 2023Narendra Modi
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USCIS and FBI should deport those fraud candidates back to India
May 3, 2023Erez
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Yes now let’s blame Indians for everything.. Indian immigrants are saving this economy, they are smart peaceful and hardworking people and we should be grateful for having them here. Disclaimer- I am NOT an Indian
May 3, 2023John Chambers
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They are neither smart, nor hard working. It takes 10 of them to do the amount of work as one American. And it’s the tech companies to blame for this problem. Government should punish these companies like Cisco, Microsoft etc.
May 3, 2023Chuck Norris
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“10 of them to do the amount of work of one American” Lolllll. Sure , if that one person was John Rambo
May 4, 2023Gopal
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Highly reprehensible. Genuine candidates applying are denied H1B chances. USICS should debar all such candidates who have done fraud and applied for multiple times with ingenuity and deported back to respective countries. The authorities should ensure that all such cases are cancelled and fresh lottery takes place for the year 2024 .
May 4, 2023Charlie Jonnas
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Ohhhh Really! Indians are not smart then I wonder who is the CEO of GOOGLE.com which is ran by billions of people around the world today. They are smart as well as hardworking the amount of technology known and used by them half of anyone would be known to it. Im not an Indian but i don’t discriminate anyone!
May 4, 2023Mohammediliyas
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USCIS should deeply investigate on this fraud applicants and filing H1B companies and should punish all applicants and they should rethink over genuine applicants and USCIS must do SECOND LOTTERY for year 2024 H1B candidate !
May 4, 2023Deeznuts
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If its a crime it’s jail time and deportation I can’t break the law so why should anyone else,I believe there maybe people getting paid on the side this is BS.
May 4, 2023