The federal company mentioned the US H-1B visa lottery system resulted in abuse and fraud

Washington:

A federal company mentioned Friday {that a} computerized lottery designed to pick out profitable H-1B candidates every year has led to abuse of the system and a pointy improve in fraud efforts.

In an uncommon assertion, US Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) mentioned on Friday that, primarily based on proof from the FY2023 and FY2024 H-1B seasons, it has already performed intensive fraud investigations, dismissed and canceled the petitions.

USCIS mentioned it’s within the means of initiating legislation enforcement referrals for felony prosecution.

“The H-1B program is a vital a part of our nation’s immigration system and financial system, and USCIS is dedicated to implementing the legislation and serving to meet the ever-changing wants of the USA labor market,” she mentioned.

She added, “We’re engaged on an upcoming H-1B replace rule that may suggest, amongst different enhancements, an enhancement of the H-1B registration course of to scale back the potential for abuse and fraud within the H-1B registration system.”

In the course of the submitting interval for the 2024 H-1B fiscal 12 months, USCIS mentioned it noticed a big improve within the variety of filings in comparison with earlier years.

It mentioned there have been 780,884 functions for H-1B visas within the computer-generated lottery for this 12 months, in comparison with 483,927 in 2023, 301,447 in 2022 and 274,237 in 2021.

General, it has seen a rise within the variety of registrations submitted, the variety of registrations submitted on behalf of patrons with a number of registrations, and the variety of registrations submitted on behalf of distinctive patrons with just one registration.

It added that the variety of registrations associated to individuals who utilized greater than as soon as rose to 408,891 this 12 months from 165,180 final 12 months and 90,143 the 12 months earlier than.

The federal company has warned that if the data offered by the applicant or the corporate is wrong, it’ll discover that the submitting was not correctly filed and the potential petitioner is not going to be eligible to file a petition primarily based on that submitting.

USCIS might deny a petition, or revoke approval of a petition, primarily based on a submitting that contained a false certificates and was subsequently not correctly filed.

“Moreover, USCIS might refer the person or entity that offered false testimony to the suitable federal legislation enforcement companies for investigation and additional motion, as acceptable,” it added.

A gaggle of American tech employees, who’re campaigning towards H-1B visas, mentioned they’ve reported on such fraud over the previous a number of years.

“The Trump administration has proposed reforming the H-1B lottery by prioritizing choice primarily based on the best wages. The administration has been sued, so now it’s a must to take care of the fraud you’re complaining about,” she mentioned in a press release.

(Apart from the headline, this story was not edited by the NDTV workers and was printed from a syndicated feed.)