H-1B visas go to average college grads, not skilled workers: Ex-US official

Former US visa officials describe concerns over inflated demand for "specialty" workers, student debt imbalances and alleged fraud in Indian H-1B applications

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Researcher Simon Hankinson, who previously served as a visa officer in India, has spoken about his experience interviewing applicants for the H-1B visa programme 25 years ago, saying he noticed concerns with the system from the start. In an opinion piece for Fox News, Hankinson wrote that the programme, which was created to bring “specialty” workers to the United States, was already being used by average college graduates at the time.

 

‘Unfair to compare Chinese or Indian student with American student’

 

Hankinson argued that comparing a Chinese or Indian student with an American student does not work, as the cost of education differs sharply. He wrote that students in China or India often attend free or low-cost institutions and complete BA, MA or PhD degrees with little debt. In contrast, American students are borrowing large sums to reach the same level. “They can’t take jobs at the same low salaries their H-1B competitors can,” Hankinson said.

 

He pointed to recent trends among large companies. “Amazon got over 10,000 approvals for H-1B visas in 2025, in the same year as they announced cuts of over 30,000 jobs. Was any effort made to retrain or re-assign Americans? Many other large US companies follow the same pattern: hire abroad, fire at home.”

 

He added that companies do not require huge numbers of specialist workers. “The truth is, the number of real ‘specialty’ workers that even big American companies really need should fit in a bus, not a stadium. And they should be willing to pay a high premium for them,” he wrote. “If AI firms are really willing to pay up to a hundred million dollars in signing bonuses for top talent, they will be willing to pay high salaries to get a few essential foreign workers. Some in Washington want to increase visas for foreign workers. Some even believe that Americans should have to compete for their jobs with the whole world. I don’t,” he wrote.

 

"Fraud, nepotism and corruption have long compromised the H-1B process. Outsourcing firms and "body shops" rig the labor market to hire foreign workers over Americans.

 

Yet there is no shortage of domestic science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates. Every year, the US produces more graduates with bachelor's degrees in computer science and engineering than the economy demands, and overall, only 28% of workers with a STEM degree actually work in a STEM job," he wrote.

 

Hankinson’s remarks follow recent claims by Mahvash Siddiqui, an Indian-American diplomat who served at the US consulate in Chennai from 2005 to 2007. She said many H-1B applications from India during that period were fraudulent, involving fake employer letters, forged degrees or proxy candidates attending interviews. According to her, some centres in Hyderabad coached applicants and provided counterfeit documents.

 

Siddiqui said her team uncovered sustained fraud during her tenure. “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.

 

She explained that the Chennai post handled cases from Hyderabad, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and said Hyderabad raised the most serious concerns.

 

“As an Indian-American, I hate to say this but fraud and bribery are normalised in India,” she said.

 

Siddiqui also claimed that some applicants skipped interviews if the officer was American, and that others sent proxies. She said some managers in India allegedly arranged jobs for applicants in exchange for money.

 

India remains largest source of H-1B workers

 

The H-1B visa allows US companies to hire foreign nationals for specialised roles. Indians continue to make up the largest share of these workers, accounting for about 70 per cent of recipients in 2024. Both H-1B and F-1 student visas have recently become frequent points of discussion among commentators aligned with the MAGA movement.