The computerized lottery systems used to choose successful H-1B applicants, as per the statement of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Friday, April 29, has led to misuse of the system and a substantial spike in fraudulent activities.
The USCIS Statement
As per The Times Of India reports, in a shocking announcement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) claimed on Friday that it had already conducted substantial fraud investigations, refused, and revoked applications based on evidence from the Financial Year 2023 and Financial Year 2024 H-1B cap seasons.
According to USCIS, recommendations to law enforcement for criminal prosecution are now being made.
Fishy-Numbers
The immigration service said that compared to previous years, the number of registrations filed during the FY2024 registration period increased significantly.
This year, there were 780,884 applications compared to 4,83,927 in 2023, 3,01,447 in 2022, and 2,74,237 in 2021.
In 2023, there were 408,891 registrations associated with applicants who submitted multiple applications, up from 165,180 in 2018 to 90,143 in 2017.
The federal office cautioned that if an applicant’s or a company’s information were incorrect, the registration would be deemed improperly filed, and the potential petitioner would be ineligible to file a petition based on that registration.
If a registration had a fraudulent attestation and was thus filed improperly, the USCIS may reject the petition or withdraw the acceptance of the petition.
US tech workers claim they have been discussing this scam for the past few years as part of their campaign against H-1B visas.
To ensure that it processes all student visas for Indians whose school starts this autumn, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu stated last week that they are on schedule to grant more than a million visas to Indians this year.
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