Visa Lawyer Blog
According to a recent BusinessWeek article, A new U.S. government report confirms that companies are using the visas to hire illegally. I am shocked, really, I thought all employers are following the law and abiding by the visa rules.
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) found that 13% of the requests for H-1B visas were fraudulent and 7% contained technical violations. In one case, when a company requested a visa for a “business development analyst,” USCIS found the person would be working in a laundromat, doing laundry and maintaining washing machines.
Bill Wright, a spokesman for USCIS, says the agency is already weighing adjustments based on the report’s findings. It’s developing a new risk-assessment program that, among other things, would closely examine requests from companies with 25 or fewer employees, since that category was found to have a higher rate of violations.
While it is true that many work visas are subject to abuse by a small group of employers, the majority of H1B participants abide by the rule. I do agree that we must increase the visa numbers and make this program more efficient as far as processing by the USCIS.