Telangana Congress MLA candidate faces allegations of US H-1B visa rigging

HYDERABAD: Kandi Srinivasa Reddy, a Congress MLA candidate for Adilabad in the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls, is facing allegations of rigging the H-1B visa lottery system, as reported by Bloomberg. Reddy has been accused of using multiple company names to submit numerous applications for the same individuals, thereby increasing their chances of selection.
A Telugu NRI, Srinivas Reddy founded Cloud Big Data Technologies LLC in 2013.Bloomberg's report revealed that Srinivas Reddy's firm, along with other entities he controlled, submitted over 3,000 entries in total, securing a significant number of H-1B visas since 2020. The H-1B visa lottery, a crucial component of America's foreign worker employment policy, is designed to allocate a limited number of visas to skilled workers. In 2023, 446,000 people applied for just 85,000 available H-1B visas.
The report highlights how staffing and outsourcing companies, including those controlled by Srinivas Reddy, exploit the lottery system, disadvantaging other US businesses and talented immigrants. The investigation further revealed that Srinivas Reddy's companies, including Machine Learning Technologies LLC, often submitted duplicate applications under different names with overlapping addresses. This strategy significantly boosted their success rate, securing over 300 H-1B visas. It also revealed that over 11,600 visas went to multinational outsourcing companies and 22,600 to IT staffing firms, indicating widespread exploitation of America's H-1B visa policy.
Bloomberg's report states that Reddy's firms rented out H-1B workers on contract to major corporations such as Meta Platforms Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc., collecting 20% to 30% of the workers' pay. These practices, described in online advertisements, suggest that Reddy's companies could earn up to $15,000 or more annually per worker.
A report published by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) last year describes a scheme involving a group of 13 related companies that worked in concert to exploit the law. The report doesn't name the companies, but by matching the report's details to the visa data, Bloomberg was able to link them all to Srinivasa Reddy. Cloud Big Data, for instance, was identified in the report as "Company B." Neither USCIS nor Reddy's representatives would confirm or deny the connections, says the report.
"In the 2020 lottery, Reddy's Cloud Big Data submitted the names of some 288 employees. At the same time, a dozen other companies Reddy controlled - companies with similar-sounding names, similar-looking websites, and overlapping mailing addresses - submitted many of the same workers' names, USCIS officials determined. In all, his companies entered the lottery more than 3,000 times," the report says. Lucas Garritson, a Texas lawyer representing Reddy, stated that several of the companies' visas had been challenged by the USCIS for abusing the lottery system. However, the agency hadn't followed proper procedures for prohibiting the activity, nor did it have proof that Reddy's companies broke the rules.
Speaking to TOI, Kandi Srinivasa Reddy said, "In the lottery system, you can enter any eligible candidate. The USCIS software allows multiple entries for the same candidate. In the past five years, out of 4.25 lakh H-1B visas issued, our company has got only 302 visas, which is 60 visas a year. Around 30,000 companies utilized the lottery system. Around 5,000 companies got more than 300 visas over five years. When 5,000 companies got these many visas, why single us out?"
He added, "What is illegal here? We are a legitimate company and are processing applications adhering to the laws. We are clearly taxpayers. When multiple visa entries are filed, the choice is up to the employees to choose which company they would like. From 2024, changes were made, and passport numbers need to be entered. Now, if multiple entries are filed, it will reflect everywhere. We are an IT consulting company like TCS and Infosys. We supply staff to big companies like Bank of America, Boeing, United Health Care, and American Express."
He also noted, "We have returned 247 H-1B visas that we are not using to the government. We were appreciated for the same."
Kandi Srinivasa Reddy claimed, "The allegations are politically motivated and fueled by my political opponents in Adilabad and those one or two disgruntled elements who failed to get the lottery in the United States joined hands with them. The media and social media handles owned by opposition parties fuel this malicious campaign."