Indians using rishwat to game H-1B programme, says US diplomat who served in India

An Indian-origin American diplomat, Mahvash Siddiqui, has urged the need for the US to immediately pause its H-1B visa programme pending a full programme audit, alleging systematic fraud and the use of rishwat (bribery) by unqualified Indian applicants to game the programme. Writing for the anti-immigrant think tank Centre for Immigrant Studies, she cited her experience as a junior officer in the US Consulate in Chennai, stating that a majority of Indian nationals aged 20-45 used the H-1B as a perfect loophole to enter the US with fraudulent or inflated credentials, displacing qualified American IT and STEM workers.

Siddiqui wrote that many H-1B applicants claiming computer science degrees had no relevant coursework or programming skills and routinely failed basic coding tests. She alleged that corrupt HR officials in both India and the US enabled the use of fake employment letters allowing underqualified candidates to bypass scrutiny.

She wrote that the issue extends beyond IT, with Indian medical graduates who were admitted to schools via affirmative action or bribery entering US residency programmes on J-1 visas, ultimately practising medicine with lower skill levels than American-trained physicians.

According to her, a "halo effect" favoured Indian applicants aided by bribery and social acceptance of fraud among peers. In the US, Mahvash Siddiqui claimed some Indian managers created insular hiring networks that excluded Americans, protected unqualified hires and fostered environments where whistleblowing was actively discouraged. As a result, the American diplomat said better qualified American IT graduates who had passed through more rigorous programmes were routinely displaced by less qualified H-1B hires or forced to train their replacements for lower pay.

In an earlier podcast, Siddiqui said she was one of 15 junior visa officers in Chennai, which she now describes as the H-1B visa fraud capital of the world.

She noted that between 2005 and 2007, the Chennai consulate adjudicated about 1 lakh H-1B applications annually, a figure which she says has since then surged to more than 40 lakhs a year. She also alleged the existence of an industrialised system of H-1B frauds, writing that "in Ameerpet, Hyderabad, entire markets sold fake degrees, forged bank statements, and counterfeit marriage/birth certificates".

Siddiqui also accused Indian lobbyists and Silicon Valley executives of running a disinformation campaign portraying American workers as less capable and said that the US Congress was often unaware of the ground realities and has been misled.

While the H-1B programme is intended for skilled workers from different countries, she argued, it has effectively become a de-facto immigration shortcut dominated by a single nation.

Among her recommendations, Siddiqui called for a pause on all new H-1B issuances until a full audit is completed, stricter verification of degree skills and employment history, prioritising US STEM graduates in sectors with sufficient domestic talent, banning nepotistic and chain hiring practices, enforcing penalties for fraud and expanding site inspections to match the scale and risk of the programme.

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