Uncle Sam probes H-1B abuse surge: What do our vultures make of it?

Register Kettle The H-1B visa system, which is used by businesses to import skilled foreign workers into America, has seen a massive jump in applications. It's a big enough surge to get the attention of Uncle Sam.

As we reported earlier, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said there were 800,000 applications this year for about 100,000 places, which are picked by lottery. The government believes a number of those applications were fraudulent, and is considering prosecutions and other ramifications.

"The large number of eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations – much larger than in previous years – has raised serious concerns that some may have tried to gain an unfair advantage by working together to submit multiple registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary," the US immigration service said.

"This may have unfairly increased their chances of selection."

H-1B fraud is something Register scribe Thomas Claburn has been following closely, and he's here to give the lowdown on the current situation in our video catch-up below.

Debating this issue with Thomas, top right in the thumbnail, are Iain, Chris, and Brandon, clockwise from bottom right.

Is the US government right to be concerned? Are Americans getting a raw deal? How about the alien workers who feel virtually indentured? We give frank views. ®