As reported earlier this year, some companies appear to have been attempting to cheat the HB1 lottery, with as many as 100,000 applicants submitting multiple entries last year. USCIS aims to reduce H1B fraud my taking measures meant to make the H1B application process more secure and keep the H1B lottery fair for all involved.
To start, USCIS continues to require every prospective petitioner to sign an attestation stating that the information they are providing is complete, true, and correct, and that the registration is for a legitimate job offer. Furthermore, the attestation states that the registrant or submitting organization must not have worked with another registrant, petitioner, agent, or other entity to increase their chances of H1B selection unfairly and unlawfully.
If USCIS discovers that any of this signed attestation is untrue, they will find the H1B registration improperly submitted, and the petitioner will be ineligible to file a petition based on that registration. Furthermore, the petition may be denied, or approval of a petition may be revoked by USCIS.
However, these measures can go farther in certain cases of H1B fraud. If deemed necessary, USCIS may refer the entity who submitted the false attestation to a federal law enforcement agency for investigation and possible prosecution.
Of course, all of this is of little consolation to those with an H1B application that was not selected during the last lottery due to H1B fraud. USCIS has not yet said what actions, if any, will be taken for applicants who were affected by the nearly 100,000 entities who submitted H1B multiple applications during the most recent lottery.
The agency does state that they have undertaken fraud investigations and denied and revoked many petitions, referring some applicants to law enforcement. USCIS also states that working on implementing an H1B modernization rule that will help reduce H1B registration fraud and misuse. However, at this time, it is not known exactly what this will entail.
For the time being, individuals are encouraged to report suspected H1B fraud using the USCIS online tip form.
