Applying for an H-1B Visa in Hyderabad: Be Careful or Be Banned!
By Pam Prather
By Pam Prather
Yet another negative situation has come to light regarding temporary foreign employees working to the US. It has the potential for professionals from India to be banned from the US for life.
The US Consulate in Hyderabad has started requiring applicants for some H-1B visas to sign an attestation about their work conditions. This attestation, if erroneous, could expose them to a lifetime ban from the United States.
Applicants who will be working at a third-party client site in the US (usually IT specialists) have been subject to increased scrutiny regarding the employer-employee relationship in the last couple of years. In 2010, the USCIS issued a memo defining the required employer-employee relationship for H-1B visas. It included a description of how that relationship was to be maintained if an employee was assigned to a third party, or to an off-site client location. In response, USCIS adjudicators started focusing more closely on things like who pays the employee, and who controls or supervises their work.
Now, in Hyderabad, the stakes in applying for an H-1B visa are very high. If an applicant guesses about certain information and is wrong (or intentionally provides false information, of course), he/she could face a permanent bar from the US.
Not all applicants know and understand the full extent of their work conditions in the US. What if they provide what they think is the right answer, or what the consular official wants to hear, and turn out to be wrong? They could be barred forever from the United States, for misrepresentation. Any assumption by the H-1B employee could be the death knell not just for his or her visa, but for their ability to ever visit the US again.
If you have an H-1B visa interview scheduled in Hyderabad, or at any U.S. consulate for that matter, it would be wise to speak with an Immigration Attorney first.