Washington/New Delhi, December 27, 2025 – The U.S. H-1B visa program, long a gateway for skilled foreign talent, is facing intense scrutiny amid explosive claims of "industrial-scale fraud" dominated by Indian applicants and consulting firms. Critics liken the scheme to India's notorious scam call centers—operated from Hyderabad and Chennai hubs—where "dispensaries" of fake companies churn out fraudulent applications, bench unqualified workers, and displace Americans, fundamentally harming office culture and worker protections.
Former U.S. consular officer Mahvash Siddiqui, an Indian-American who served in Chennai, alleged that 80-90% of H-1B applications from India involve forged documents, unqualified candidates, or outright deception. "Fraud is normalized," she stated, describing consultancy shops selling fake degrees, transcripts, and job letters while coaching applicants to lie during interviews.
BREAKING: In India Kerala Police busted a nationwide fake degree racket seizing 100,000 forged certificates from 22 universities. Estimates suggest over 1 million issued, some allegedly used to secure jobs abroad in medicine, nursing & engineering!
— ExposeIT⚡️ (@RealWaKhan) January 1, 2026
We've been alarming since 2022 pic.twitter.com/VNftAukAhC
Economist and former Congressman Dave Brat amplified the concerns, claiming one Indian consular district—Chennai—processed 220,000 H-1B visas in a recent year, far exceeding the national cap of 85,000. "It's a huge scam stealing American jobs," Brat said on a podcast, noting Indians receive about 71% of approvals.
At the heart of the abuse are "ghost" or shell companies—often U.S.-registered but controlled from India—that submit petitions for non-existent jobs. Workers arrive on H-1B visas only to be "benched" at low or no pay until placed elsewhere, mirroring "bench and switch" schemes seen in past cases like Cloudgen LLC and Nanosemantics Inc., where Indian-origin operators pleaded guilty to fabricating client contracts.
These practices, critics argue, parallel India's scam call center ecosystems: centralized operations producing fake credentials and scripted narratives to game the system. The result? American tech offices flooded with underqualified or over-submitted workers, suppressing wages, fostering cliques, and eroding collaborative culture. Reports highlight ethnic preferences in hiring, with Indian managers favoring H-1B holders, leading to layoffs of U.S. staff even as firms file thousands of visas.
The Trump administration's response includes scrapping the random lottery for a wage-based selection starting February 2026, higher fees up to $100,000, and enhanced social media vetting from December 15, 2025—triggering mass interview cancellations at Indian consulates and stranding thousands.
India's government has raised alarms over the delays, with spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal noting hardships for families and disrupted education. Appointments in Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, and New Delhi have been pushed to September 2026 or later, prompting warnings of scams targeting anxious applicants.
Defenders of the program insist most users are legitimate, filling genuine STEM shortages. Yet with approvals for India-based firms declining amid fraud probes, and USCIS ramping up site visits and revocations, the debate intensifies: Is the H-1B bridging talent gaps or enabling a transnational fraud network undermining American workers?
As 2025 ends, the program's future hangs in balance—reforms aim to prioritize "higher-skilled, higher-paid" applicants, but allegations of systemic abuse continue to fuel calls for overhaul.
