Kamal Ghorui
If two companies file H-1B petitions for the same individual not by mistake but to game the lottery, it is considered fraud. If one withdraws the petition in the nick of time, the matter was not pursued by the USCIS but now a landmark decision by the USCIS Administrative Appeals Office says that withdrawing a petition won’t spare the applicant from fraud investigation.The decision is a precedent one which means it will now be effective to all future cases. According to experts, though the decision came in an H-1B case, this will now be applicable to all immigration petitions. If USCIS officials find that one application has been withdrawn, they can investigate and find out whether it was intended for fraud.
H-1B lottery and multiple registrations
It is a common fraud to register the same individual multiple times to increase the chance of the person getting selected in the lottery. In this particular case, in which the new decision came, Matter of Texperts, an IT staffing company, filed an H1B petition for a database administrator. After the petition was selected in the lottery, USCIS issued a notice of intent to deny, stating that the petitioner worked with a related company to submit duplicate lottery registrations for the same beneficiary.Matter of Texperts withdrew the petition and the USCIS said the company had committed fraud. The petitioner appealed against the USCIS. The Administrative Appeals Office said USCIS is allowed to investigate the fraud that they alleged. “Because Matter of Texperts is a precedent decision, every USCIS officer reviewing a withdrawn petition going forward is now on notice: a withdrawal does not foreclose a fraud finding, and the agency is authorized to make such findings for the record. This is no longer a matter of informal agency practice, but codified policy,” Murthy Law Firm explained the new decision.
What does the new decision mean for future cases?
- A petitioner, a company, facing allegations of fraud or misrepresentation, cannot avoid investigation just by withdrawing the petition.
- If a petition has to be withdrawn, the petitioner has to give a thorough, substantive explanation that they did not commit any fraud or misrepresentation.
- Though an H-1B worker may have no knowledge that multiple registrations have been submitted in their name, they may face a permanent ban from entering the US.
