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USCIS is issuing a notice of intent to deny NOID to candidates who filed multiple H1B registrations in the lottery fraudulently.
The denials are being issued if:
- Multiple registrations were done through related companies. Examples:
- Same owner.
- Owner from the same family.
- Same registered address.
- The same registrations were submitted through different unrelated companies. Examples:
- Unrelated owner.
- Multiple financial transactions with each other even when companies are unrelated.
- The same Attorney represents these unrelated companies.
- Same or similar-sounding job letters.
USCIS has carried out thorough research in the cases before issuing the denial notices and has provided a detailed analysis of how and what they have found about the company before issuing a such denial.
These kinds of applications are mostly filed by small consulting companies who promise to get the H1B selected and sometimes also charge money for it. They are also known as body-shopping consultants who have created a group of companies to just clog the lottery system.
It is good that USCIS has conducted this investigation to weed out the fraudulent applications and provide a fair ground to people who played by the rules.
Connected/Related Companies
In one such denial notice claiming “willful misrepresentation” by the employer as shared by the immigration lawyer Thomas V. Allen, USCIS has claimed that:
- H1B employers submitted multiple registrations for the same person through other employers who have the same registered agents or
- All employers are connected to each other through some other mechanism.
Disconnected Companies
The cases where the h1B employers were not directly related to each other but created some kind of unofficial network just to file multiple registrations have also been denied.
USCIS has claimed that they checked:
- G-28 representations – basically the Attorney who is filing the case.
- Companies were related through financial transactions where they were transacting with each other even though the owners were different.
- Same or similar-sounding job support letters.
- Employees were shared between the companies.
FAQ
We will keep updating this page with more questions and answers as we receive them. You can ask your questions on the forum and we will reply as soon as possible.
If the USCIS has sent this NOID for your H1B, you have little chance to do anything. Your employer will get a chance to respond to the USCIS claims and if they can prove them wrong, you may get approval.
But, if you cannot prove your truthfulness, your H1B will be denied even though it has been selected in H1B.
Multiple H1B selected and you submitted applications for all: The chances are that all of your H1B applications will be denied if they are all found to be part of the same fraud investigation.
As per rules, if the USCIS finds that your H1B employer intentionally submitted multiple applications to increase the chances of selection in the lottery, they may refer the individual or employer to appropriate federal law enforcement agencies for investigation and further criminal actions.
At this time, there is no news about any criminal action being filed against any employer but this may come out soon.
You are safe as long as your multiple registrations were submitted by real employers separately for unique end-job positions.
At this time, USCIS has only issued the denials for current year H1B registrations.
It is possible that they conduct an investigation for earlier years and then issue NOIR (notice of intent to revoke). NOIR is more dangerous than NOID as revoking the cap petition would mean that you were never selected in the H1B cap.
Source: Law Office of Thomas V Allen
