H-1B visa lottery scam: Congress leader from Telangana accused of rigging, manipulating system

A Congress leader was linked to an immigration scam on Wednesday — accused of being part of a group manipulating the US H-1B visa lottery system through ‘multiple registrations’. An explosive Bloomberg report tagged Kandi Srinivasa Reddy — a Congress candidate for the Telangana Assembly elections — as the man behind the scheme.

Numerous companies linked to Reddy had worked to exploit a loophole in the streamlined lottery process (introduced in 2020) — generating multiple tickets for the same worker. Companies owned or controlled by the Congress leader entered the lottery more than 3,000 times and managed to win over 300 H-1B visas in the past four years.

Reddy however told Bloomberg during a brief telephonic interaction that he was merely a ‘registered agent for the companies and has little involvement in them’. The assertion however contradicts previous comments made by the businessman — including his claim before Texas authorities that he was the CEO of Cloud Big Data. An affidavit filed with election officials in India and business registry documents in the US also show that he or his wife own or control all the companies in question.

While Reddy may have led the ‘scam’ reports suggest that thousands of other staffing firms have now caught on to the trick. According to Bloomberg estimates, companies that used the multiple registration tactic pulled in about 40,000 H-1Bs over four years.

To put that number into perspective, around 446,000 people sought H-1B visas in 2023 with only 85,000 being available. Reportedly, more than 11,600 visas went to multinational outsourcing companies, with vast overseas workforces that flood the lottery with entries. Another 22,600 went to IT staffing firms.

“The lottery maneuvers changed not only the kind of companies winning H-1B visas but also the kind of workers being admitted to the US. The median salary at a staffing firm last year was about $90,000, the data show, compared with $125,000 for regular employers. Reddy’s recruits made about $87,000,” the Bloomberg report added.

(With inputs from agencies)