Government Study Finds 21% Of H-1B Applications Violate Rules

[OhioChick]

Source: Information Week

The government estimates that fraud, including below-market wages and filings by fake businesses, is present in 13,000 of the yearly H-1B petitions filed.


October 20, 2008 04:40 PM


The United States government estimates that 21% of H-1B visa petitions are in violation of H-1B program rules -- ranging from technical violations to fraud -- based on the investigation of a representative sample.

A newly available report on the study, drafted by the Office of Fraud Detection and National Security, cites one of the most common violations as businesses that did not pay a "prevailing wage" to the H-1B beneficiary, meaning the going salary rate for a job in a specific market.

The report's estimates are based on a sample study of 246 cases, out of a total of 95,827 H-1B petitions, filed between October 2005 and March 2006. The sample cases included only those in which a business was looking to extend an existing H-1B visa for someone already in the United States, or hire someone under the H-1B program who came to the United States on a different visa. (The study excluded situations in which the visa beneficiary was still living abroad due to the complication of interviewing that person.)

Out of the 246 cases investigated, the government office determined that 51 cases, or 21%, were in violation of H-1B program rules. "When applying the overall violation rate of <21%> to the overall H-1B population, a total of approximately 20,000 petitions may have some type of fraud or technical violation," according to the report. Further extrapolation finds that 13,000 of those cases would represent acts of fraud, with the remaining 7,000 being less-severe technical violations, says the report.





Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/h1b/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211201998

---

21%? :grr:

[Demeter]

1. No Kidding?

How is it that it took 30 YEARS for this kind of investigation to occur?

[Rage for Order]

2. They just want to work and make a better life for themselves

And their families. And they're doing the jobs that Americans won't do. What American will stare at a computer screen for 10 hours a day writing code?? People who want to restrict the H-1B visas are racist against brown people, since most of the recipients are from India, China, and other areas of the Far East. What would you do in their situation, tough it out in the slums of Bangladesh or do whatever you could to get into the USA? Bunch of damn xenophobic nativists.

Did I miss any of the tired old canards?

[ihavenobias]

4. You had me going there for a minute! n/t

[strategery blunder]

6. There were plenty of Americans willing to do that in the 1990s

but not for slave wages. When large corporations started outsourcing their IT operations and laying off IT workers, coincidentally around the same time as the Flori-duh Selection, a lot more young people, such as myself, asked "What's the point of spending my own money training (college) for an occupation that's going to require me to relocate to Asia by the time I graduate, and work for 20% of the pay?"

During the 1990s, much of this work WAS done by Americans, before Corporate America decided that American labor was just getting too damn expensive.

So, yeah, I guess from that POV, American's aren't willing to do shit, because it makes no economic sense when American workers are cut at the knees in the first place. Pointing out fraud in the H1-B system is not racism, merely a recognition of corporate greed.

[ChromeFoundry]

7. What? they actually checked up on these applicants?

It should be against the law to believe that there was any violations in the applications without any proof! Where is the outrage?!? Don't they realize that we have a shortage here? Nobody here has any cranial capacity to perform these technology jobs... We need these people! Who cares that they stretched the truth on a little piece of paper that allows them to take a job away from someone that held the job for the last 10 years... Even Bill Gates knows that we need as many of these low wage people as we can get. We better raise the cap at least by another 21% to cover these violations and get those good quality H-1Bs in here to do all these jobs that Americans can't do!





just in case you have had more than 6 beers... :sarcasm:

[antigop]

3. 21% sounds low -- but at least the issue is getting press! n/t

[Angleae]

12. Press today, forgotten tomorrow.

Sadly.

[OhioChick]

13. Sadly,

What you say is true.

[quidam56]

5. Fraud has become "The American Way"

See what's deemed 'horrifying' health care in the state of Tennessee and at the same time is deemed "acceptable standards of health care" in East Tennessee... http://www.wisecountyissues.com And apparently by a nurse educator at University of Tennessee. G R E E D !

[babylonsister]

8. So when is the US Government going to start cracking down? Grrr. nt

[tclambert]

9. Well, now, you know the current administration believes the market should police itself

Business can do no wrong. Greed is good. Let market forces decide what's right and wrong. Government shouldn't interfere. Besides, government isn't the solution, it's the problem.

On January 20th, a new sheriff will ride into town . . . Holy cow, I never noticed how much Barack Obama looks like Cleavon Little. Well, let's hope he can save Rock Ridge, DC.

[OhioChick]

10. When they stop taking money from lobbyists. n/t

[Azlady]

11. It about is about time.

The 21% is low, I know too many of us out of jobs, or dang close to it, or trained H1B's, lost our jobs... over and over again.