- H-1B visa program accused of fraud with Chennai district receiving 220,000 visas
- A US economist claimed a national cap for H-1B visas is 85,000, but Chennai received 2.5 times that number
- Chennai consulate processes visas for Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Telangana regions
America's H-1B visa programme is once again in hot water after an economist accused the system of fraud, alleging that the Chennai district in India obtained more than twice the total number of visas allowed nationwide. Economist Dave Brat, a former US Representative, has claimed that while the national cap for H-1B visas is 85,000, Chennai received 220,000 visas, which is 2.5 times the cap.
Speaking on a podcast, Brat claimed that the H-1B system had been "captured by industrial-scale fraud", with the visa allocations exceeding the statutory limits.
Brat pointed out that 71 per cent of H-1B visas come from India, while only 12 per cent come from China, the second-largest beneficiary group of the programme.
"That tells you something's going on right there. Then there's a cap of only 85,000 H-1B visas, but somehow one district in India, the Madras (Chennai) district, got 220,000, two and a half times the cap Congress has set," the former Republican lawmaker said.
The Chennai consulate is one of the busiest H-1B processing centres in the world, processing applications from four high-footfall regions, which are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana.
Brat went to link the issue with MAGA's (Make America Great Again) anti-immigration agenda and projected it as a threat to American workers.
"When I say H-1B visa, you need to think of your cousins, your aunts and uncles, and your grandparents. One of these folks comes over and claims they're skilled; they're not. That's the fraud. They just took away your family's job, and your mortgage, and your house, and all that," he said.
Brat's remarks came days after an Indian-American diplomat claimed that an "industrial-scale" fraud plagued H-1B visa applications in India. Mahvash Siddiqui, who served at the Chennai consulate between 2005 and 2007, said that in 2024 alone, US officials adjudicated thousands of non-immigrant visas, including 220,000 H-1Bs and 140,000 H-4s for their family members.
She also claimed that most of the H-1B visas issued to Indians were fraudulent, based on either fake employer letters, forged degrees or proxy interviews for applicants who were not genuinely highly skilled, as claimed.
Siddiqui also claimed that there are places in Hyderabad which openly coached visa applicants and sold them fake employment letters and educational certificates.
