Visa Versa: Sham Companies Exploit H-1B Program

The H-1B visa program, ostensibly to match "highly-skilled" foreign workers with the needs of employers in the U.S., is being exploited on a massive scale to import workers without regard to their skill nor whether there is any work for them. That's according to new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The research examined data on H-1B recipients and found many were associated with "companies" that consisted of nothing more than an address. "An astounding number of them were residences, particularly in Texas," says John Miano, attorney and CIS fellow. "Digging deeper, you'd find apartment complexes, or virtual offices, or in some cases the actual worksite would be a small office with 50 H-1B workers there."

The issue that led to this abuse is a loophole in the worker visa rules opened during the Biden administration, which allows aliens to sponsor themselves for H-1B visas and other immigration benefits. "You can come here on a student visa, start a company on paper, sponsor yourself for an H-1B visa, get an apartment, and then sponsor your friends and family for H-1B visas and say the apartment is a worksite," says Miano. "Apparently there's no checking whatsoever when they give out these visas that the place they say they're working is a place where they can be working."

It is not surprising that the Biden administration opened up the worker visa laws for exploitation, but what is surprising is the Trump administration has not yet acted to end it. The administration recently launched an investigation into fraud in the H-1B program, which may eventually lead to finding some of these abuses. But Miano points out they don't need an investigation to reverse Biden's action. "There's a whole slew of regulations that they could be unwinding that they have not done, and also they haven't pressed Congress for new legislation to ensure another Democrat president can't loosen the rules again," says Miano. "It's quite inexplicable why the Trump administration has not been aggressive in fixing this."