The US immigration agency has said that the H1B visa lottery system has led to instances of fraud.
Abusing the system
The computerised drawing of lots devised to select successful H-1B applicants every year has resulted in abuse of the system and a sharp increase in fraudulent efforts.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that based on evidence from the Financial Year 2023 and Financial Year 2024 H-1B cap seasons, it has already undertaken extensive fraud investigations, denied and revoked petitions.
Optimizing system
It went on, “We are working on an upcoming H-1B modernisation rule that will propose, among other improvements, bolstering the H-1B registration process to reduce the possibility of misuse and fraud in the H-1B registration system.
USCIS said that during the registration period of FY2024, it has seen a sharp increase in the number of registrations submitted compared to prior years.
Increase in applications
It said there were 780,884 applications for H-1B visas in this year’s computer-generated lottery, against 4,83,927 in 2023 and 3,01,447 in 2022 and 2,74,237 in 2021.
The number of registrations tied to people who applied more than once rose to 408,891 in 2023 from 165,180 last year and 90,143 the year before, it added.
Quick refresher
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
Technology companies depend on it tp recriot tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Error in H1-B visa application
The US immigration service cautioned that if the information provided by an applicant or a company was not correct the registration will not be accepted.
As a result the prospective petitioner would not be eligible to file a petition based on that registration.
The USCIS may deny a petition, or revoke a petition approval, based on a registration that contained a false attestation and was therefore not properly submitted.
A group of US Tech Workers, who are campaigning against the H-1B visas, said they have spoken about such a fraud for the past several years.
Indians scoring millions+ visas
Last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu said they are on track to issue more than a million visas to Indians this year to make sure it processes all of the student visas for Indians whose school starts this fall.
“We’ve also been prioritising work visas: H-1B’s and L visas. Wait times at some of our consular sections in India, for these visas are now below 60 days. We will continue to make sure that we prioritise visas for workers, as this is vital for both the American and the Indian economy,” Lu said.
