10/11/2008 - United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced it is considering a series of reforms to the H-1B application process, including the use of “independent open-source data” to obtain information about beneficiaries and petitioners. For example, USCIS is considering permitting immigration officials to check petitioning companies against commercially available records to ensure legitimacy. Other reforms being considered include new evidentiary requirements, and implementing a risk assessment program for applications based on objective criteria relating to fraud indicators.

The announcement comes after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) publicly released an Office of Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) report last week which stated that of 246 H-1B applications reviewed by USCIS 13.4% contained fraud and 7.3% contained technical violations. A total of 10 cases contained fraudulent or forged documents. The report also stated that site visits by immigration officials established that some petitioning businesses did not really even exist or that job duties were not consistent with those in the position description provided by the petitioner.

For a copy of the FDNS report follow this link:
http://grassley.senate.gov/private/upload/100820081-3.pdf