New Delhi: The H-1B visa system — a pathway for skilled workers to find opportunities in the United States — is once again under the spotlight. Former US Representative and economist Dave Brat alleged that the Madras (Chennai) district itself received 2,20,000 H-1B visas, despite the statutory US annual cap of 85,000 visas.
“That’s 2.5 times the cap that Congress has set. That’s the scam,” said Brat, on the War Room podcast hosted by Steve Bannon. “One of these folks that comes over claiming they’re skilled – they are not. That’s the fraud. They just took away from your family’s job, your mortgage, house and all that.”
He further claimed that around 71 per cent of all H-1B visas reportedly go to India, while only 12 per cent go to China, implying that such a lopsided distribution itself should set off alarm bells.
The statements come at a time when the H-1B system is undergoing an overhaul. Since September 2025, the US government has imposed a $100,000 fee for each new H-1B petition filed from abroad — a move aimed at drastically reshaping the demographics of visitors who want to enter under the visa program.
The administration frames the overhaul as a step to prioritise domestic workers and ensure only “top-tier” talent gets H-1B access; critics say it threatens to shut off a critical channel for immigrant professionals and curb opportunities for foreign-trained workers, especially from countries like India.
Alarming controversy
That claim by itself would have triggered scrutiny. But what makes the controversy more alarming are recent remarks from a former US diplomat, Mahvash Siddiqui, who once worked at the Chennai consulate.
In the podcast titled Parsing Immigration Policy, Siddiqui claimed that during her posting from 2005 to 2007, she saw what she called “industrialised fraud” in visa approvals.
According to her, around 80-90 per cent of the H-1B visas issued to Indian applicants during that period were essentially bogus — backed by fake degrees and forged documents. She alleged that some of the applicants lacked the actual skills that the visa demanded.
“We quickly learnt about the fraud. We wrote a dissent cable to the Secretary of State, detailing the systematic fraud we were uncovering. But due to political pressure from the top, our adjudication was overturned,” she said, adding that she adjudicated about 51,000 visas, most of them H-1B.
Also read: Students of Tier 2 and Tier 3 Indian cities dominate US classrooms: Study
No confirmation on 2,20,000 visas
US immigration authorities have not publicly verified any data confirming that 2,20,000 visas were issued from Chennai in a single cycle. Neither have they confirmed whether any portion of these visas involved forged credentials.
Nevertheless, these allegations only add to an already politically charged, anti-immigration sentiment. They could also reshape how the US government evaluates visa requests, enforce background checks, conduct audits of consular practices, and tighten compliance.
For India’s tech workforce and thousands who consider H-1B as a launchpad for global opportunities, the controversy carries a sting. Even legitimate aspirants may now carry an unwarranted suspicion. For observers in the US, the debate revives perennial arguments about immigration, skills, job security and fairness.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)
Do the lawmakers seem to imply that they would have been better off allowing more Chinese citizens compared to the Indians ? Weren’t these lawmakers harping about CCP agents embedded in American universities and how the students stole IP and took them back to China ? USA is fast being pushed into a delusional merry-go-round. It is their own administration which has been handing out these visas. Even Trump has taken a U turn with regard to H1B and its need.