US: Former Students Getting Notices Due To ‘OPT Fraud’

Amid the changed policies and raids targeting International students, here is a new trouble to the former students who are on Optional Practical Training (OPT) or now employed in the US.

As per the newly updated ‘Issue of Notice to Appear’ policy introduced by USCIS, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is sending the notices based on ‘secret fraud findings’. It leads to the deportation process and it can lead to arrest and detention.

The international student victims are being secretly labeled as guilty of fraud by USCIS in OPT scam cases.

The OPT scam operates through companies that aggressively advertise consulting jobs to recent graduates to hire OPT students. After extending job offers, these companies claim the need for additional training and charge students for the same. The training is of poor quality, and students are not assigned projects to fulfill the mandatory work experience requirement under OPT. Students whose jobs are just on paper continue their part-time jobs.

DHS does not publicly warn about these scams. Still, it conducts raids on such companies, confiscates employee lists including the names of students on OPT, and systematically cross-references them with existing records in the system.

The immigration analysts are suggesting that those students should seek help and approach USCIS to get their names removed from the list through legal process.