H-1B visa lottery fraud: Congress' Telangana leader scammed visa system through multiple registrations

A Congress leader, Kandi Srinivasa Reddy, has been implicated in an alleged immigration fraud scheme, accused of orchestrating a manipulation of the US H-1B visa lottery system through multiple registrations.

This revelation emerged from an extensive Bloomberg report published on Wednesday, which identifies Reddy as a key player in the scheme, according to Mint.

Reddy, who is a candidate for the Telangana Assembly elections, reportedly orchestrated efforts through numerous companies associated with him to exploit a loophole in the streamlined lottery process introduced in 2020. This loophole allowed for generating multiple lottery tickets for the same individual.

Over the past four years, Reddy's companies entered the H-1B lottery more than 3,000 times, successfully securing over 300 H-1B visas.

In response to the allegations, Reddy claimed during a brief phone interview with Bloomberg that he was merely a "registered agent for the companies" and had minimal involvement in their operations. This statement contradicts earlier assertions made by Reddy, including his claim to Texas authorities that he serves as the CEO of Cloud Big Data. Furthermore, affidavits filed with Indian election officials and U.S. business registry documents indicate that Reddy and his wife have ownership or control of all the implicated companies.

Reports indicate that while Reddy faces scrutiny for leading the alleged scheme, thousands of other staffing firms have reportedly adopted similar tactics to exploit the visa lottery system. Bloomberg estimates that companies utilizing the multiple registration strategy obtained approximately 40,000 H-1B visas over four years.

To illustrate the scale of the issue, it was noted that around 446,000 individuals applied for H-1B visas in 2023, with a mere 85,000 visas available. Of the visas granted, over 11,600 went to multinational outsourcing companies, known for overwhelming the lottery with entries, while approximately 22,600 were awarded to IT staffing firms.

The consequences of these lottery manipulations appear to have redefined both the types of companies receiving H-1B visas and the profiles of workers entering the U.S. Last year, the median salary for personnel at staffing firms was approximately $90,000, compared to $125,000 for regular employers, with recruits under Reddy earning around $87,000, according to the Bloomberg report.