Visa Lawyer Blog
Another blow to the H1B program. According to Computer World, the cables being released by WikiLeaks are shedding some light on fraud in the H-1B visa application process in countries that don’t get much attention for it — Mexico, Libya and Iceland.
The reports so far are a collection of anecdotes explaining attempts to dupe U.S. officials into granting visas to people not eligible for them. That collection may grow as more cables are released.
The cables offer insight into the types of issues that embassy officials in such countries can encounter when processing work visas.
A cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, written two years ago this month, said that Mexico presents “persistent fraud problems” for the H-1B and L-1 visa programs as applicants “overstate experience, education, or future job responsibilities in efforts to bolster their applications.”
The fraud attempts in Mexico are mostly by people looking for a way to immigrate to the U.S., according to the cable.
The most common false documents presented during interviews or in petition packages submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials are false pay receipts, the embassy wrote.
This cable, and others, shed a little detail on a 2008 USCIS report that found evidence of forged documents and shell companies that gave fake addresses and locations.
That report found one in five visas are affected by either fraud or have “technical violations.”
For several months, WikiLeaks has been slowly releasing State Department cables that may ultimately number as many as 251,000. Less than 7,000 cables have been released so far.
Expect more delays in visa processing in such Consulates from now onwards.
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