More Foreign Worker Visa Fraud

It turns out that notorious software off shoring operation Infosys decided at some point that cheating H1b visa fraud was too damn much time and money so they have become more inventive:

In a case that threatens to scald Infosys in the North American market, from where it gets over 60% of its revenues, and intensify the debate on outsourcing in the US, Jack Palmer said the company was circumventing H-1B visa rules by sending low-level and unskilled employees to the US on B1 visas instead.

H-1B visas, which are needed to send employees to work in the US, have become more expensive and harder to get than B1 visas that are only meant for meeting, conferences and business negotiations. Palmer, who has been working with the company since 2008, further said that Infosys managers in the US were intentionally committing fraud to avoid paying taxes locally and that the company mistreated him when he filed a complaint as part of the whistleblower policy.

Outsourcing has been an inflammable issue in the US as it continues to struggle with high unemployment. The Indian IT services have often been accused of taking away American jobs to cheaper destinations. This anti-outsourcing sentiment has also resulted in visa norms becoming more stringent in the past few years.

This raises an interesting point.

My solution to H1b visa abuse, it's largely used to bring in cheap labor and depress wages, is to raise the cost of the application and permitting process, but obviously this would tend to drive exactly this sort of fraud.

I'm beginning to think a bounty program, with people who rat out their employers getting 3 to 5 year work permits, might be the most effective way to deal with enforcing the laws.

H/t Naked Capitalism.