US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have reported widespread fraud in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa program involving thousands of foreign students and suspected employers across the United States. Speaking at a press conference, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said investigators found empty offices, locked buildings, fake work locations and companies that allegedly claimed to employ hundreds of foreign students despite showing little or no real business activity. Officials said they have already identified more than 10,000 foreign students linked to “highly suspect employers” among just the top 25 OPT employers being reviewed.Lyons said the OPT program, originally created to provide temporary work experience to foreign students, had “ballooned into an uncontrolled guestworker pipeline.” “Today, we are announcing that we have identified over 10,000 foreign students who claim to be working for highly suspect employers,” he said.
What is OPT program
As explained by USCIS, OPT or optional practical training is temporary employment that is directly related to an F-1 student’s major area of study. Eligible students can apply to receive up to 12 months of OPT employment authorization before completing their academic studies (pre-completion) and/or after completing their academic studies (post-completion). However, all periods of pre-completion OPT will be deducted from the available period of post-completion OPT.
ICE says investigators found fake offices and suspicious employers
According to Lyons, investigators visited work sites in states including Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida. “We’ve discovered empty buildings, locked doors and addresses where hundreds of foreign students are allegedly employed,” he said. He added that multiple OPT employers were often listed at the same address even though “none actually lease the facility.”Officials also claimed they found residential homes being used as listed work locations for hundreds of foreign students. In some cases, people answering the door reportedly denied knowledge of the companies. ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officials said they also discovered companies with tax liens, lawsuits, suspicious financial transactions and missing employment records.
Officials claim links to shell companies and overseas operations
HSI Executive Associate Director John Connick said investigators recently conducted site visits at 18 OPT work sites in North Texas and found “coordinated employer clusters” operating from the same building complexes.“We found shell company schemes where multiple OPT employers are established by the same owner operator,” Connick said.He alleged that some companies claimed to employ only a few foreign students even though government records showed hundreds linked to the same employer. In one case, officials said a company in Texas claimed to employ only three OPT workers, while records allegedly showed more than 500 foreign students connected to it.Connick also claimed some employers said their HR and management operations were based in India, while other companies allegedly used PO boxes or empty locations as business addresses. Lyons said officials believe the fraud is “deliberate, coordinated” and crosses international borders.