Thursday, October 09, 2008

Doh!! H1-B Fraud!!

See! I can write about frauds which do NOT begin with 'vote'!!

An internal report by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) examining the H-1B visa program has found evidence of forged documents and fake degrees, and even "shell" companies giving addresses of fake locations.

The USCIS report,
released Wednesday by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), indicates that serious violations of the H-1B program by employers are so common that one in five visas are affected by either fraud or "technical violations." This means that potentially thousands of employers may be violating the rules, some willfully.

What? "Body-shops" of programmers doing bad things? My heart!!!

Employers didn't pay prevailing wages in some cases and benched employees when there wasn't work, while some employees worked at jobs that differed from what the application claimed they would be doing. In one bizarre case, an H-1B holder was found "working in a laundromat doing laundry and maintaining washing machines," the report said.

"This report validates the major flaws in the H-1B visa program,"
Grassley said in a statement.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, as "fraud" is not the principal problem with H1-B visa abuse. The REAL problem is that the regs actually invite abuse and manipulation.

While it's not surprising to find that some body-shops are committing fraud, the abuse and manipulation will likely continue.

"Best and brightest"--so long as they are not US citizens.

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