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Brown in America

What Lies Beneath - A tale of the H1B visa and broken American Dreams

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America, Desi Please, Opinion, Politics
On: ⋅ January 23, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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This story from the New York Times exposes the dark side of the H1B visa and the American Dream for Indian techies.

A business owner from India was sentenced yesterday in Federal District Court to 20 months in prison for helping hundreds of immigrants live and work illegally in the United States, prosecutors said. The businessman, Narendra Mandalapa, 36, must also forfeit $5.7 million and two luxury cars, which were proceeds of his crime, and pay a $25,000 fine, prosecutors said.

$25,000 seems like peanuts to someone with that kind of money. Narendra Mandalapa, who also went as Nick Mandalapa, was masquerading as Ramesh Dashrth.

The Indictment charges Mandalapa with, among other things, attempting to fraudulently cause the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) to approve at least 250 Immigrant Petitions for Alien Workers (Forms I-140) that he submitted to CIS. An I-140 is a petition for an alien worker to become a lawful resident in the United States.

The aliens paid Mandalapa as much as $22,000 in exchange for Mandalapa’s promise to secure an I-140 on their behalf.

An I-140 for those not in the know, is one the many steps required for immigrant workers to get their green cards.

Googling Narendra Mandalapa and Cybersoftec has returned a lot of interesting results. The victims of this unscrupulous operation, over 300 of them, have formed a Yahoo Group. RipoffReport, a website where people air their grievances, has a blurb on Cybersoftec.

Cybersoftec Inc, NJ Charged money for SAP training. Did not provide any training and NOT returning the money Cybersoftec Inc, Iselin New Jersey New Hampshire, New York, Chicago, New Jersey, Santa Clara, Irving, Dover, Portsmouth, Portland, New Town Square, Moines Nationwide

R. Lawson also has some interesting material and links on this blog including this now non-existing comment from the Yahoo group.

The H1B approval notice - form I797 has 2 parts. The approval notice is sent to the employer by the USCIS and the USCIS doesn’t even send a copy to the employee.

The instructions on the approval notice reads that the top part is to be kept by the employer and the bottom parties to be sent to the employee. However some employers like Cybersoftec keep both the top part and the bottom part and don’t send a copy to the employee.

What happens as a result is that the H1B employee gets stuck with his employer. If he needs to change job or to travel outside of US or to even go back to his home country (and return), he needs theH1B approval notice, to show his valid status.

I hope USCIS realizes this fraud some day.

The modus-operandi of these computer companies is quite simple. The H1B visa is a sponsor based visa. If a worker on a H1B loses their job, he/she has to go back to the country of their origin. If a foreign student cannot find a job 12 months after graduation, he/she has to leave the country.

This is exactly where these companies step in. They offer to step in and sponsor your H1B “at a price”. The price could be anywhere from 15-20% to 70% of your paycheck and may include additional “fees” to be paid to these consultants. What ensues is a long saga of fear and blackmail that often ends in heartbreak. This problem is more widespread than we would like to believe and could be happening to the friendly neighborhood desi programmer at your workplace.

The H1B program needs a total overhaul where the techie worker will not end up an “indentured servant” to the sponsor. Until then, unscrupulous middle-men will continue taking advantage of honest and hard working techies. The techies can do their part by walking away from these shady deals.

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