Deal Reached in Inquiry Into Visa Fraud at Tech Giant
Source: New York Times
Infosys, the giant Indian technology outsourcing company, has agreed to pay $34 million in a civil settlement after federal prosecutors in Texas found it had committed “systemic visa fraud and abuse” when bringing temporary workers from India for jobs in American businesses, according to court documents and officials familiar with the case. The payment is the largest ever in a visa case.
After an investigation of more than two years, prosecutors on Wednesday will unveil the settlement as well as its accusations that Infosys “knowingly and unlawfully” brought Indian workers into the United States on business visitor visas since 2008, which avoided the higher costs and delays of a longer-term employment visa the workers should have had. They will charge that Infosys systematically submitted misleading information to American immigration authorities and consular officials to obtain the faster visas, unfairly gaining a competitive edge and undercutting American workers qualified for the jobs.
Federal investigators also found extensive omissions and errors in the hiring records Infosys was required to keep for its employees, which could have allowed thousands of Indians to continue working in this country after their visas had expired, according to the documents.
... The settlement is one of several setbacks in this country for Infosys, and could also affect other big Indian outsourcing companies that rely on the temporary H-1B employment visas to bring thousands of workers from India each year for technology contracts here. In a class-action lawsuit filed this year in Wisconsin, four American tech workers assert that Infosys broadly discriminates against Americans with its practice of employing mainly South Asians in the United States.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/us/indian-tech-giant-infosys-said-to-reach-settlement-on-us-visa-fraud-claims.html
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