Multiple H-1B visa petitions for skilled foreign workers have been filed by U.S. tech firms to game the immigration system.
According to USCIS, there was a significant increase in the number of duplicate applications submitted on behalf of the same applicants, raising the possibility that businesses conspired to submit multiple entries for the same workers in order to increase their likelihood of being selected in the lottery.
Allegations of Fraud
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported in a letter to stakeholders that this year’s computer-generated lottery for H-1B visas received 780,884 applications, a 61% increase from the previous year’s total of 483,927. From the previous year’s total of 308,613 applications, last year’s tally rose by 57%.
The government started asking lottery winners to sign affidavits last year saying they didn’t try to cheat the system by colluding with others to submit numerous bids under different company names.
If they were successful even once, these businesses could become labor contractors, marketing their services to tech firms seeking to hire foreign workers but unable to do so due to visa restrictions.
Based on lottery applications from the previous two years, the government claims to have conducted comprehensive fraud investigations dismissed some petitions, and sent others to federal prosecutors.
From 165,180 in 2017 and 90,143 in 2016, the number of duplicate registrations increased to a whopping 408,891 this year.
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Investigating Unfair Competition
When it comes to the immigration debate, H-1B visas—used by software engineers and others in the computer industry are a flashpoint because of the widespread belief that they are used to unfairly compete with native-born Americans and lawful permanent residents.
They are provided for a term of three years, although that time can be extended by a further three years if necessary.
Applications may be increasing due to fraud, as described by U.S. officials, in which firms with similar ownership but different names submit applications. Fragomen partner Andrew Greenfield, who regularly speaks on behalf of the firm’s tech clientele, stated.
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