Is this some kind of fraud?

pauldmps

Skilled
So I got a mail from my college's T&P department regarding an off-campus recruitment drive which is below (company's name has been omitted).
Selection Criteria:
1. Candidates with 80% throughout the career do not require written appearance. They will have to appear only HR Interview.
2. Candidates with 60 % will have to undergo all selection processes.
3. Candidates with very good communication skills and right attitude are preferable.
4. Candidates with no backlogs only are allowed, if found at any point of time will be disqualified without any notice.
5. Maximum one year gap with proper reason is considerable.
6. Willing to relocate anywhere in India/Abroad
7. Willing to sign a service agreement of minimum 12 months or maximum 24 months (Visa Type – B/M/F)
Technical Skills Required (Any one of the below is Mandatory):
1. JAVA
2. Mobile Apps (Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows)
3. Sharepoint
4. Oracle Apps
5. Project Management
6. Big Data
Selection Procedure:
1. Offline Aptitude Test (45 min.)
2. Communication Skill Interview
3. Technical Skill Interview
4. Queries & Brief Discussion about Process (One to One)
Documents Required (Original & One set scanned Softcopy):
1. All Board Certificates (10th, +2, Diploma, Degree, etc.)
2. All Mark sheets (As available)
3. Any other Technical Certifications / Training / Internships
4. CV with recent color photograph (Original one set only)
5. Passport (if not available, then selected candidates should make it available with us by 15 April, 2015)
After Selection Processes & Financials:
1. Visa Processing: Initially selected candidates will be travelling B/M/F visa and H1B1 visa process will be initiated during this process.
2. Financials: B/M/F visa expenditure:
a) $160 to be deposited to US consulate initially
b) $230 to be deposited to US customs and immigration
c) Fee:- $300 will be charged by Indian & US law firms for processing Visa
3. H1B1 Process:
a) $2500 Visa processing fees including Govt. charges.
4. Ticket: a. Return Tickets from Kolkatta to USA is about 85000/- INR approximately.
5. Accomodation & Food:
a. Two(02) months staying expenditure & Food costs around 80000/- INR
Benefits:
1. Two year rigorous experience and hand on experience in International market will enhance the career opportunity in global market.
2. Flight expenditure will be borne by recruiting company.
3. If H1B1 visa is rejected then the company will refund the flight fare and visa amount.
Salary:
1. It depends upon performance, but not less than $1500/- Month (Till the Visa is not converted to H1B1 selected candidates will be getting stipend and will have to work as trainee.)
Our Partners for USA Staffing Process:
1. Global Trotter, Kolkatta(Indian Agency)
2. ISE Global, Edison, New Jersey, USA
Our Recruiters, USA :
1. Odenweller Wulfhorst-Van Pelt
2. Central Insurex Agency Inc
3. Mph Insurance Inc
4. Adl Institute LLC
5. P. Wolfe Consultants Inc
6. GRPM services
7. United Services Associates INC
8. AZH Construction Consulting
9. Construction Lien Consultants, LLC
10. Fine Consulting LLC
11. Athena Consultants, Inc
12. KK Consultants LLC
13. Michilli Inc
14. United Construction Management
15. RPO Inc.
16. D.C. Turano Consultants, Inc.
17. Capital PM LLC

What fires my scam alarm is that they are asking around ₹4 lakhs if selected & which includes a whopping $2500 fee for H1B1 visa and they are sending people to US through B/M/F visa which are tourist/student/student visa respectively that forbids taking up employment in the country.
I have heard how people are coerced into going to gulf countries, promised lucrative salaries and then their passports are taken by the company & made to work for meagre wages. Do such thing exists in the US?
 
Most probably yes. H1B1 application happens once a year during April and people can look forward to working in US mostly after Oct. So that boat has sailed ie no application till at least next year. And that too for Oct 2016, cause you can work only after 6mths of H1 application. In the meantime are you ready to willingly break the law?

And US is not like those ME countries, things are a bit nuanced. You can be sued for trying to leave your job because companies can claim expenses on you (hypothetical or otherwise).
 
One more thing: I knew that work visa to US is called H1B & not H1B1. So I opened Wikipedia & found that H1B1 is a special type of H1B only meant for Singapore nd Chile & not India.
 
So I got a mail from my college's T&P department regarding an off-campus recruitment drive which is below (company's name has been omitted).


What fires my scam alarm is that they are asking around ₹4 lakhs if selected & which includes a whopping $2500 fee for H1B1 visa and they are sending people to US through B/M/F visa which are tourist/student/student visa respectively that forbids taking up employment in the country.
I have heard how people are coerced into going to gulf countries, promised lucrative salaries and then their passports are taken by the company & made to work for meagre wages. Do such thing exists in the US?

$2500 visa fee is definitely correct. But I suspect that the company is a body shopper run by Indians. Some of these companies do indulge in the same kind of activities like what happens in the gulf like taking away passports or blackmailing people. But US is pretty strict regarding this sort of abuse and they usually educate people during the visa interview about how they can get in touch with authorities if/when they think they are being abused. even if people think there is wage related abuse, the authorities can be contacted.

As for H1B abuse, it not only applies to body shoppers like these, but all so called reputed IT services companies like Infosys, TCS etc also indulge in H1B abuse.

H1B is meant to be used to bring in skilled manpower from outside the country where resources for those skills are not available in the local market. For this, the companies there are expect to conduct interviews and prove that nobody is available in the local market. What these IT services companies do is to issue fake job ads in papers/on line, conduct fake interviews (i.e. they will just reject the candidates or tell them that the vacancies are already filled) and then represent to the Govt that nobody could be sourced in the local market. For the kind of work that is done in services companies, there is no dearth of skilled resources in US, but these companies use these tactics to ship cheap labour from their centres in India. Technically most of the people who go to US on H1B via IT services companies are going because of this visa fraud from their their employers.
 
1. H1 time line for this year is already over.
2. requirements are not specific. which means it would be highly dependent on the customer of this consultant to recruit your through h1.
3. if point no 2 is valid then the client would take care of the process.
4. The most important rule for H1 is that the company should have more than 50% of the work force as Americans and the H1 employee should be paid on the level or more than the American counter parts.
5. because of the point no.4 its highly unlikely that the candidate would get the visa. remember there is no way for you to check the credentials of the client here in this case.

TLDR;
Big visa fraud. could be a ponzi scheme too for paying the salaries of "recruited" people. try to report if possible.
best case scenario is that you lose 4Lakhs and end up in a stupid job with no future.
worst case, the candidate could end up getting blacklisted in the immigration dept for visa fraud while losing 4 Lakhs and job.
 
^^ No student from my college is gonna pay such amount. But where to report?
$2500 visa fee is definitely correct. But I suspect that the company is a body shopper run by Indians. Some of these companies do indulge in the same kind of activities like what happens in the gulf like taking away passports or blackmailing people. But US is pretty strict regarding this sort of abuse and they usually educate people during the visa interview about how they can get in touch with authorities if/when they think they are being abused. even if people think there is wage related abuse, the authorities can be contacted.
As for H1B abuse, it not only applies to body shoppers like these, but all so called reputed IT services companies like Infosys, TCS etc also indulge in H1B abuse.
But do TCS, Infosys, etc. charge the employees the $2500 visa fee? What about working in the US on B,M or F visa? Isn't that illegal?
 
^^ No student from my college is gonna pay such amount. But where to report?

But do TCS, Infosys, etc. charge the employees the $2500 visa fee? What about working in the US on B,M or F visa? Isn't that illegal?

Those companies sponsor the fee for their employees. In some companies, you are asked to pay the fee yourself when you apply for visa and then you can file an expense report to claim the expense. That still doesn't change the fact that these companies abuse H1. H1 is for workers with specialized skills for which resources are not available locally. Most of these companies should be using L1 for their work.

http://www.immi-usa.com/immigration-news/l1-versus-h1b-visas/

Only certain categories of visa allow you to work in US like L1 or H1. B1 for example does not allow you to work, but its still often abused for work purpose. Its original purpose is to only allow you to visit the country for short term business reasons like attending business meetings or conferences and the like. B1 should not be used for productive work in US.

http://www.immihelp.com/business-visa/permissible-prohibited-activities.html


When going through outfits that are exclusively in the market of body shopping, they will ask you to cover the visa fee and addition, they will have their own fee/commission. Its all on your own expense. If you end up making it though, all these outfits have their own way of making money of you. They might either take a big lump sum, a periodic share of the salary or you might be shown as an employee of the company which will have a single room office (for address) in US and they will charge the company (like services companies) for leasing resources and give you a share as salary.

Typically, they will help you with visa filing process, prepare fake documentation to show that you have 4 or 5 years experience even if you are a fresher. For them, its usually a no risk - all reward proposition. They don't lose any money whether you get visa or not and if you make it though, they have some revenue model. If you get caught, you will be the only one who will end up in jail.
 
^^ No student from my college is gonna pay such amount. But where to report?

But do TCS, Infosys, etc. charge the employees the $2500 visa fee? What about working in the US on B,M or F visa? Isn't that illegal?

The visa fees are sponsored by the company and not the person who will be getting the visa. All India tech companies pay the visa fees. As @booo suggested report this to USCIS they will take care of the rest.
 
The recruitment drive has been postponed (due to our final semester exams). I will try to sit for the drive and gather more info. They have a face-to-face round after selection regarding the formalities. I'll raise those questions then.
 
@Lord Nemesis What I have heard is that it is harder for people with low experience to get an L1 Visa. There is a high chance of getting rejected. Whereas for H1B, higher percentage of applicants are accepted.
Maybe a myth though.
 
@Lord Nemesis What I have heard is that it is harder for people with low experience to get an L1 Visa. There is a high chance of getting rejected. Whereas for H1B, higher percentage of applicants are accepted.
Maybe a myth though.
L1 has two visa types. L1A (Managers&Executives) and L1B workers with specialized knowledge (your knowledge must be “special” or of an “advanced” level.) and the first requirement for L1 is to complete one full year in that particular company.
That should give you a hint why people with less exp will get rejected.
 
L1 has two visa types. L1A (Managers&Executives) and L1B workers with specialized knowledge (your knowledge must be “special” or of an “advanced” level.) and the first requirement for L1 is to complete one full year in that particular company.
That should give you a hint why people with less exp will get rejected.
I am talking about people who have been with the same service company for 3+ years and have advanced knowledge. The knowledge is of a program which is considered a niche skill.
 
^thats debatable because the immigration lawyer should prove that they couldnt find that skillset in US. for example, advanced knowledge in something like c++ or SAP is not considered special skill set. whereas knowledge related to design/architecture of the product which is IP of the company and impossible for a new person to know is considered special.
 
I am talking about people who have been with the same service company for 3+ years and have advanced knowledge.
those people suck at communication skills. they don't know an iota about their company's business. they can't explain what they are going to do in US. such people get rejected within a few minutes of interview.
 
As per my understanding, L1 can only be by multinational companies with offices in US which want to move an eligible employee with the necessary special skills to US.

My former company used to transfer capable people to US branch only on L1 visa (No H1B). I was asked to transfer when I had less than 2 years experience (which I refused). A colleague was given the opportunity to transfer when he had 3 years experience which he did. He did not have any problem in the L1 visa processing.
 
I am talking about people who have been with the same service company for 3+ years and have advanced knowledge. The knowledge is of a program which is considered a niche skill.
Should be enough to answer your question. L1 is for intra company transfer compared to H1 which is a work permit. Service companies already pile on enough H1s for visa officers to be wary of them.
 
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