18 percent H1B Visas misuse SSN
By Bala Shah

The US had set up the H-1B visa program to hire on a short term basis highly skilled workers not available in America. While most Indian tech firms win contracts based on their quality computing skills and competitive costs and treat their H-1B techies well, there are others which exploit Indians at every opportunity.  The US Govt had announced huge fines for some such firms.

Indian companies, especially tech firms, use majority of the H1B Visas.

The USA Inspector General Act created independent audit and investigative units, called the Office of Inspector General (OIG). The mission of the OIG, as spelled out in the Act, is basically to conduct and supervise independent and objective audits and investigations relating to agency programs and operations.  And also make recommendations to make the system more efficient.

OIG has released its detailed investigations into H-1B workers’ use of Social Security numbers (SSN) and the summary was

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Based on the results of our review, we estimate about 7,131 (18 percent) of the 38,546 H-1B workers to whom SSA assigned an SSN in 2007 may have used their SSNs for purposes other than to work for their approved employer. This estimate includes about 4,433 (11 percent) H-1B workers who had posted wages during our audit period from an employer other than their DHS-approved employer. This estimate also includes about 2,698 (7 percent) H-1B workers who had no posted wages from 2007 through 2009. To enhance SSN integrity, we believe SSA should contact DHS to offer to establish a data match agreement to assist DHS’ efforts to identify and reduce the number of H-1B workers who may use their SSNs for purposes other than to work for their approved employer.
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