H1-B Denied in Hyderabad

[JoeF]

The ground reality is that the best breed of IT professionals come from the consulting background as they have a lot of exposure from different clients and various projects and that's the "real value add" my friend for any project.

That's the usual world view of people who have no experience other than in consulting.

Unlike you, I have done both consulting work and work at a product company.

When I was doing consulting, we had a very special niche: fixing the problems that other consultants created... So, I have seen a lot of shoddy work from consultants. In a product company, junior people are mentored, and supervised properly. Consultants aren't mentored, even if they come right out of college and would need mentoring. The result is shoddy work.

The real value add to any project is experienced people. That means not people who work for a company 2 times removed from the problem, like a consultant. It means people who have their heart and soul in the project, again, unlike consultants.

And employer-employee relationship is not about non-compete agreements. It is about the employer having a say in what the employee does in his work day-to-day. Where do you get the wrong notion that it would be about non-competes?

And as far as outsourcing is concerned: No successful company outsources the crown jewels. Some marginal stuff may be outsourced, but not the core competency. Can you imagine Google outsourcing the development of their search algorithms? They outsourced their HR, but not the development...

And some companies who outsource more than they should end up with embarrassing blunders, like MS, which outsourced the development of some tool to allow booting Windows from a USB stick, only to find out that the contractor stole the code, lifted from some Open Source, GPL-licensed stuff, in violation of the GPL.

Which brings me to my next point: If you think consulting is where the talents are, where is the contribution of consultants to Open Source? You know that Open Source is everywhere, do you? It is in your wireless router, it is in your smartphone, it is in your TV, it is in your DVR, it is on this website:

Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.17

Come on, where are the contributions of the people you manage?

There are a least two Indian persons contributing to the Linux kernel, as far as I know. Check the group photo from the Linux 2007 Kernel summit (sorry, can't post the link here, but it is in an article by kernel contributor Jon Corbet.) I am pretty sure that they are not working for some third-rate sub-consultant in an EVC setting...

[vidhya18]

@ Joef .

Yes I definetely understand that there is thing called "INTERNET" ...But it all depends on what role you are hired for ? Fyi .. My client supported me for 6 months when I was in india but my role is functional thing where I have to interact with Business users every time which is practically not possible sitting at home remotely ....

Thanks for all the suggestions though !!!

Vidhya !!!

[win_01]

@ Adil ,

Sorry to hear about it . This really scares me a lot as I am also planning for my second attempt .... Oh God !! This is seriously crazy !! I don't know how do they expect us to file from the direct client ? or find some one who has direct clients ,if we do that also don't you think they have "N" of questions for us ?

Can you please tell me what would be the best answers for the last but 2 questions from your experience say if are on EC model ?

Thanks ,

Vidhya !!

There are many reasons for this , numerous shady consultancies and many from india have exploited H1B regulations like it's nobody's business for . They hire on mass basis without any projects , not pay on time or not even pay at all, circumventing thru the tax system . With all this and a growing number of affected employees filing DOL complaints they got more and more exposed of their wrongdoings. Hence they didn't leave uscis much choice but to impose stringent laws on hiring and to control this black market business. I am only saying this as i have first hand experience and had to face the brunt for years dealing with unbelievably unethical people . Who knows maybe it's coming as a boon in disguise to you by not getting caught up in this mess. There are many good tier 1 companies in India who send you to US on L1 or H1 and its a much safer bet.

[vidhya18]

@ Dreams 16 ..

Here you go ... vkaranam18@******.com .. This is My email Add ...

Vidhya !!!

[tejalks]

@ Joef -

Many a times its not possible to work from home.. There are medical professionals who cant work from home. Inspite of having a real job without any layers in between, still I am stuck here in India since last 7 months.

[JoeF]

@ Joef -

Many a times its not possible to work from home.. There are medical professionals who cant work from home

And they won't work in an EVC model. The EVC model is pretty much an IT thing. That's what my focus is.

As for your particular situation, you seem to be what is called "collateral damage." You are caught in this because others abused the H1. You should be much more mad at the abusers than I am... It is the fault of the shady H1 consultants and the people who signed up with them that the H1 for everybody is under so much scrutiny.

[vidhya18]

@ Win_01 ,

Yeah I totally agree with you !!!

Vidhya !!!

[h1b321]

That's the usual world view of people who have no experience other than in consulting.

Unlike you, I have done both consulting work and work at a product company.

When I was doing consulting, we had a very special niche: fixing the problems that other consultants created... So, I have seen a lot of shoddy work from consultants. In a product company, junior people are mentored, and supervised properly. Consultants aren't mentored, even if they come right out of college and would need mentoring. The result is shoddy work.

The real value add to any project is experienced people. That means not people who work for a company 2 times removed from the problem, like a consultant. It means people who have their heart and soul in the project, again, unlike consultants.

And employer-employee relationship is not about non-compete agreements. It is about the employer having a say in what the employee does in his work day-to-day. Where do you get the wrong notion that it would be about non-competes?

And as far as outsourcing is concerned: No successful company outsources the crown jewels. Some marginal stuff may be outsourced, but not the core competency. Can you imagine Google outsourcing the development of their search algorithms? They outsourced their HR, but not the development...

And some companies who outsource more than they should end up with embarrassing blunders, like MS, which outsourced the development of some tool to allow booting Windows from a USB stick, only to find out that the contractor stole the code, lifted from some Open Source, GPL-licensed stuff, in violation of the GPL.

Which brings me to my next point: If you think consulting is where the talents are, where is the contribution of consultants to Open Source? You know that Open Source is everywhere, do you? It is in your wireless router, it is in your smartphone, it is in your TV, it is in your DVR, it is on this website:

Come on, where are the contributions of the people you manage?

There are a least two Indian persons contributing to the Linux kernel, as far as I know. Check the group photo from the Linux 2007 Kernel summit (sorry, can't post the link here, but it is in an article by kernel contributor Jon Corbet.) I am pretty sure that they are not working for some third-rate sub-consultant in an EVC setting...

That's the usual world view of people who have no experience other than in consulting.

Unlike you, I have done both consulting work and work at a product company.

When I was doing consulting, we had a very special niche: fixing the problems that other consultants created... So, I have seen a lot of shoddy work from consultants. In a product company, junior people are mentored, and supervised properly. Consultants aren't mentored, even if they come right out of college and would need mentoring. The result is shoddy work.

The real value add to any project is experienced people. That means not people who work for a company 2 times removed from the problem, like a consultant. It means people who have their heart and soul in the project, again, unlike consultants.

And employer-employee relationship is not about non-compete agreements. It is about the employer having a say in what the employee does in his work day-to-day. Where do you get the wrong notion that it would be about non-competes?

And as far as outsourcing is concerned: No successful company outsources the crown jewels. Some marginal stuff may be outsourced, but not the core competency. Can you imagine Google outsourcing the development of their search algorithms? They outsourced their HR, but not the development...

And some companies who outsource more than they should end up with embarrassing blunders, like MS, which outsourced the development of some tool to allow booting Windows from a USB stick, only to find out that the contractor stole the code, lifted from some Open Source, GPL-licensed stuff, in violation of the GPL.

Which brings me to my next point: If you think consulting is where the talents are, where is the contribution of consultants to Open Source? You know that Open Source is everywhere, do you? It is in your wireless router, it is in your smartphone, it is in your TV, it is in your DVR, it is on this website:

Come on, where are the contributions of the people you manage?

There are a least two Indian persons contributing to the Linux kernel, as far as I know. Check the group photo from the Linux 2007 Kernel summit (sorry, can't post the link here, but it is in an article by kernel contributor Jon Corbet.) I am pretty sure that they are not working for some third-rate sub-consultant in an EVC setting...

@ Proper supervision : so you are telling me that you we a mentor with a couple of years of experience mentoring a fresher ? interesting !! and may be its be you are not cognizant of the market and the IT culture now ....which makes you say all this... and a correction to your stereo type comment that I am not into product development .....my contribution to production development is the innovative idea based on my functional experience of the industry which came from the consulting back ground ...For your information I am evaluating a product now for my client for which the vendor thinks like you that's its a Niche but in fact he is violating PCI compliance ...and the product has been certified by various entities ..... Ok when you are venting so much on Indian companies explain me this : why are big implementation companies given a soft corner for their tax frauds ?? why do they send ppl on B1 and work around the tax system ??? and they qualify for BEP ??? Ya right ...

The right thing should be USCIS should reject the application then and there ....and act fair ....so that my lease, car payments and other liabilities should not be impacted (think about it ) ....and it is not easy to find an employer who will hire you from India on H1 ....may be you can get a contract and again find a company which does h1 and guess whats happening when you go to the consulate with this employment, your application is subjected to some kind of new admin process and again you loose the job ...even FT clients do not wait .....

You are a senior member of this forum and a great contributor ...but my friend you guide but discourage ppl. when someones career is in jeopardy you should not be sarcastic ..it does not suit you ...

Coming back to the contribution of my team members its totally dependent on my direction ......

Pls take a break from forum and do some research on the IT outsourcing ( when I say outsourcing ...it does not mean offshoring the job but give it to a service provider for 3- 5 yrs ) now you will say "why don't you get a job with them " but the fact is they get ppl from third world countries to work on a McDonald type rate .

@ heart and soul on project : we give our sweat and blood to every assignment that we go to ...don't think we browse immigration forums all day.

@ non-compete : that was an answer to your comment on NDA's , did you hear of something called "travelling consultants" ?? where person goes back to his base location and reports to his primary manager at employer site ? and just to add for core competencies companies seldom hire h1 workers, for many reasons including security reasons.

@stealing the code : when Stayam collapsed no one audited the US audit firm which was doing the fact checks !! did we hear anything about that ?

now the business model is to offshore (send out of country) the technical design and get the code done, this is the side a

This argument can go both ways .....the point here is govt should stream line the process and blacklist all the companies not compliant with laws and this information should be made public for the employees to make a better decision and move on ....rather than getting surprised ....at the visa counter. In this way they can have a better plan. And please accept not all desi companies are fraudulent and the evaluation process is broken with a wrong capacity planning. 6- 8 months for a normal project verification ??? why doesn't the consulate call up the client in a day or two after seeing the client letter, like it calls up the university to verify the educational documents for an F1 application ? FPU should have better capacity planning .....the senators who oppose the h1 and have raised concerns ...also are proponent of giving GC to ppl educated from US ....why is that not being addressed .......??

[nrkiran1]

@h1b321

Very well stated and I totally agree with you. I think the US immigrations is now into a big political game.

1. Making money by approving the H1B cases of EVC or EC models just by checking the client letter and project duration. This is how they approved my case in July of this year. If they don't approve at least by basing on end client letters, then they would lose their revenue. Remember they make approx $2000 to $3500 on each H1B filing.

2. Then consulates are rejecting these approved cases or keeping them in suspense in order to support US politician's / anti immigrant lobbyist's that are trying to gain the votes in next election by showing these H1B rejections to Americans.

@JoeF

I agree with you that some shady firms abused / abusing the H1B. But this is not the way US should payback. There are other ways to reject the visa, for ex: by checking the W2 of previous years, W2 reports of other employees of petitioner etc...etc...

Just FYI, My story in short.....After having my Masters in US, I had 8 years of experience as a ERP business analyst. From the past 2 years, when I was in US, I tried sincerely to get a full time job at the direct clients, but I didn't succeed either due to my salary requirement is not matched or due to the end clients not willing to sponsor my H1B. I know many end clients are now not willing to sponsor H1Bs. If they are willing, then the consultants like me has to agree for less salary than what we are currently making as consultants. So the clients are rather going to outsource their work or offering their own level of salary to H1Bs.

So I sticked staying as a consultant with my employer, a desi staffing firm. I was making the $$ as I wished, well and far above what a full time job would've paid me and also waiting for my PD to be current in my GC process. It will be current next month.

Last month I had to come to India and my visa stamp is now kept in suspense because of this E-E rule.

Had my GC is processed on time, I wouldn't have landed up in this situation. But as you stated, I couldn't join with an end client who cannot match my salary reqmt for my experience and skills just because they need to sponsor my H1B.

If the DOS is thinking that EVC models are violating H1B visa, then they should create a new visa category which allows to work in US till the duration of end client project as stated in the client letter.

[JoeF]

@h1b321

Please structure your posts better. As manager, you should be able to do that.

Right now, your posts are an unstructured mess, very hard to read and understand. I have no idea what you are rambling about.

Please write full sentences, and don't put "..." everywhere. Thank you.

[JoeF]

@JoeF

I agree with you that some shady firms abused / abusing the H1B.

Well, it was more than "some" shady firms. USCIS had found that 25% of H1 applications were not following the law.

There are other ways to reject the visa, for ex: by checking the W2 of previous years, W2 reports of other employees of petitioner etc...etc...

And they do that.

They combine several things. And it is very clear and always has been very clear that an H1 is not for agents who place people. The Neufeld memo basically just formalizes that.

So I sticked staying as a consultant with my employer, a desi staffing firm.

See above. Staffing firms that just place people somewhere are not qualified to apply for H1s. Never have been. And with the Neufeld memo, this gets enforced now.

Contrast this with the American-owned consulting firm I worked for on H1: I worked in the company office or from home on consulting projects. The clients got billed, but my employer controlled my work, he decided what I work on, he got new projects to work on, etc. We rarely traveled to the client sites.

H1s are not for staffing. Never have been. Shady consulting companies just have abused that.

And as I said, all abuse comes back to bite. Sure, finding a job isn't easy. It has never been easy. But that doesn't mean it is ok to bend and/or abuse the H1 rules.

And the delays of the GC process are also not an excuse to bend and/or abuse the H1 rules.

[h1b321]

@h1b321

Please structure your posts better. As manager, you should be able to do that.

Right now, your posts are an unstructured mess, very hard to read and understand. I have no idea what you are rambling about.

Please write full sentences, and don't put "..." everywhere. Thank you.

Sorry the post is not a business process document or something that I am being paid for, if you cant understand that's no big deal. The typos were because of the keyboard ....when others can understand and reply, I am sure you are smart enough to make sense out of it ....

No one here is arguing to bend the rules but the point is there should be some clarity around the rules. This approve petition and reject visa game will not help !

@ management skills : You have no idea how good I am at what I do :) , if it helps you I would like to mention that I already have 4 offers from my previous clients ..... thanks to the desi firm which gave me my first opportunity .......

I like your last comment which was straight forward and without sarcasm ....please stick to this and you will be more respected. Thank you !

[tejalks]

And they won't work in an EVC model. The EVC model is pretty much an IT thing. That's what my focus is.

As for your particular situation, you seem to be what is called "collateral damage." You are caught in this because others abused the H1. You should be much more mad at the abusers than I am... It is the fault of the shady H1 consultants and the people who signed up with them that the H1 for everybody is under so much scrutiny.

Hi JoeF,

Yes I am really annoyed & mad at the way the whole system is working. But I also believe that if this EVC or how many ever vendors people add in between, if this is not a legal work model, USCIS should not be approving petitions in the 1st place.

There are law breakers & law abiding employers. But its the USCIS & DOL, which needs to carry out audit to find out their credibility, which I am sure they would be doing. But some where this needs to be done a lot more strictly so that genuine cases are not made to suffer.

Apart from this the Consular officers at the posts also need to understand that not every company or agency is bad, if that was the case then no H1s would be approved. The Consular officers need not place some one in 221g each time they go for a visa stamping, especially if most of the conditions remain same - For eg - if I am with the same employer during my previous & current stamping & I have gone through this **** 221g ( yes I will call it ****, since I have been through this 2 times in 1.5 years). Even if they wish to do an admin processing, once cleared - say the clearance should be valid for 2 or 3 years, some thing like that, unless the person is a threat to the security.

Every case cannot be scrutinized on the pretext of - security check & if the employment model is legal.

I know its of no use to tell u all this, but guess this is what happens after waiting for 6 months, inspite of being law abiding with a correct work model. Its ridiculous.

Just curious to know - are u currently in India stuck with 221g ? have u ever been affected with this ?? Or are u one of the moderators for murthy forum.

Thanks ,

Tejal.

[JoeF]

Hi JoeF,

Yes I am really annoyed & mad at the way the whole system is working. But I also believe that if this EVC or how many ever vendors people add in between, if this is not a legal work model, USCIS should not be approving petitions in the 1st place.

There are law breakers & law abiding employers. But its the USCIS & DOL, which needs to carry out audit to find out their credibility, which I am sure they would be doing.

Doing audits costs money. The fees don't cover that, so Congress would have to give USCIS more money, and in the current budget situation, that's rather unlikely to happen.

As recent posts show, USCIS seems to send out RFEs for E-E relationship nowadays.

Apart from this the Consular officers at the posts also need to understand that not every company or agency is bad, if that was the case then no H1s would be approved.

I am sure they know that. It is just that the bad apples spoil it for everybody. The bad apples make every office extremely suspicious.

Just curious to know - are u currently in India stuck with 221g ? have u ever been affected with this ?? Or are u one of the moderators for murthy forum.

Neither.

I myself have gone from H1 through GC to US citizenship. I am a software engineer.

But I have a bunch of highly educated friends (with MS and PhD) who couldn't get H1s during the H1-abuse years when the quota was filled immediately by fake H1 applications from shady consultants.

If you look at my posts from that time, I warned people that this abuse would make things much harder in the future. But well, people didn't want to listen, and now everybody suffers.

[JoeF]

@h1b321

You seem to gossip and spreading rumors way to much...

When you talk about Stayam, how do you know which things happened and which didn't? Were you there?

If not, then you are just gossiping.

And you are trying to use that case, which you don't really know anything about, to imply something about US authorities.

Well, as every math class would tell you, you can't imply anything from something unknown.

So, please stick to known facts. You can gossip after work over a beer...

[tejalks]

@ JoeF,

Thanks for responding. Yeah I guess every word of urs is correct. People dont realize this before taking up jobs with such consultancies & then what happens is clear from the current scenario.

What do you think is the best bet for me :-

1) apply for a new h1 from another employer

2) apply new h1 from same employer

3) wait to hear back from uscis

Both 1 & 2 - are tough with the current visa scenario in India, most of the employers are not willing to file if one is in India.

About point 3- My employer is pretty sure that they have all the paper work to provide to USCIS if asked for & they believe that things would be positive in our case, as its clear cut visa extension & all rules obeyed. Though its just a matter of time. They are advising me since I have waited so long, wait for some more time before we hear the good news.

Could you please give your views too.

Just to remind again - I am a Physical Therapist, so there is absolutely no way a EVC model can arise in my case. It would either be a direct hire or EC model.

Thanks,

Tejal.

[Desi Dude]

Hey h1b321,

Even though what you say is theoretically correct, it won't work in the real world. You are being naive. You suggest that they shouldn't surprise people during visa stamping. USCIS being strict during visa stamping is intentional. And let me tell you why, take this scenario, if USCIS denies someone's H1B extension, what would he do next? Will he just pack his bags and leave the country, leave his house, car? NO he will file again for H1B probably through another employer. Let's say that also is denied. Will he pack his bags? No, he will try to change his status F1, H4 etc or maybe even stay over out of status. 90% people would do this. So this would create unnecessary illegals, complications.

So what do you think USCIS would do to avoid this situation and maintain the process? They will be lenient while processing H1Bs but they will make him go outside the country for visa stamping, COS etc. Once the person is out of the country, they can be as strict as possible as the person now can't come in and stay over even when they reject the visa.

Secondly, you said they should make it easier for consultants, staffing companies etc. Well you can't blame USCIS for anything since it's all supply and demand. In the late 90s US needed a lot of IT professionals, so they relaxed the H1B process and GC process. Now IT is saturated and unemployment rate is very high. So things need to change, become more strict. There is no right or wrong, it depends on the times. Deal with it.

[JoeF]

Secondly, you said they should make it easier for consultants, staffing companies etc. Well you can't blame USCIS for anything since it's all supply and demand. In the late 90s US needed a lot of IT professionals, so they relaxed the H1B process and GC process. Now IT is saturated and unemployment rate is very high. So things need to change, become more strict. There is no right or wrong, it depends on the times. Deal with it.

Actually, in the past these shady consulting companies (mostly desi, but not necessarily limited to them) have competed unfairly. They were not paying on bench, they were paying lower salaries, they were not paying health benefits for their employees. Not a surprise that they could offer their services for cheaper.

Competition can only work if there is a level playing field. If somebody skews the field, then everybody loses.

And no American government can allow foreigners to compete unfairly with the result of Americans losing their jobs.

So, the thing is: compete on a level field, not by abusing the system.

And IT staffing companies (which is really what most companies are that just place people at clients) unfortunately have abused the H1 for too long.

This EV..C stuff simply doesn't make any economic sense. There are even some with multiple vendors in between.

A client paying more so that all the vendors in between get their cut, and the final employee is paid the proper prevailing wage??? Give me a break. That only happens in an alternate universe...

[JoeF]

@ JoeF,

Thanks for responding. Yeah I guess every word of urs is correct. People dont realize this before taking up jobs with such consultancies & then what happens is clear from the current scenario.

What do you think is the best bet for me :-

1) apply for a new h1 from another employer

2) apply new h1 from same employer

3) wait to hear back from uscis

Both 1 & 2 - are tough with the current visa scenario in India, most of the employers are not willing to file if one is in India.

About point 3- My employer is pretty sure that they have all the paper work to provide to USCIS if asked for & they believe that things would be positive in our case, as its clear cut visa extension & all rules obeyed. Though its just a matter of time. They are advising me since I have waited so long, wait for some more time before we hear the good news.

Could you please give your views too.

Just to remind again - I am a Physical Therapist, so there is absolutely no way a EVC model can arise in my case. It would either be a direct hire or EC model.

Thanks,

Tejal.

Sorry, hard to say what would be better.

Direct hire is almost always best, but hard to do if out of the country.

So, it is probably best to wait it out for now.

[tejalks]

Thanks a lot JoeF

[newdisplayname]

This was one of the best topic that I read on this forum. I totally agree with the mess that EVC model and Desi consultants have created. I am a full time employee and I got my visa stamped after 3.5 months. Every day in India was painful for me.

However, let me tell you all the abuse of H-1B visa that I have personally experienced.

A woman who has completed her MBA from some shady university was looking for making some money in US. She had no work experience and was in US on H4 visa. So she somehow got one year work experience from her relative's small company (big fraud) and applied for H-1B visa with a desi consultant. The desi consultant took 3000 USD from her for filing the visa. Now this was in the year 2006 when the entire quota of H-1B visa got expired in the matter of few hours. Her stars were very strong and she got her H-1B visa (I am sure one of the most deserving candidate lost his). After she got her visa the desi consultant started looking out for a job for her without paying her anything. She eventually got a job on a client side but could not hold on to it for long. That is not the point.

Because of such fraud, people are getting scrutinized a lot when they go for stamping in India.

[siva01]

JoeF, I have seen lot of times that you gave very good suggestions.Really appreciate it.

I have a very big question which always running in my mind.Why don't the US authorities or US consulates turn their foucs in eradicating the roots instead of trying to cut the branches.I mean to say why can't they erdaciate the shady consultancies instead of targetting the employees.These shady consultancies are in the US and why can't they be targeted? Eventhough I am noway related to any consultancies, but becoz of their mistakes,lot of legitimate cases were suffered/are suffered/will get suffered.Also,why don't the USCIS do a thorough investiagtion about the consultancy as well as the candidate before they issue the visa?

It is really very unfortunate that all candidates (legitimate and fake)come under the same screening umbrella.

[JoeF]

JoeF, I have seen lot of times that you gave very good suggestions.Really appreciate it.

I have a very big question which always running in my mind.Why don't the US authorities or US consulates turn their foucs in eradicating the roots instead of trying to cut the branches.I mean to say why can't they erdaciate the shady consultancies instead of targetting the employees.These shady consultancies are in the US and why can't they be targeted? Eventhough I am noway related to any consultancies, but becoz of their mistakes,lot of legitimate cases were suffered/are suffered/will get suffered.Also,why don't the USCIS do a thorough investiagtion about the consultancy as well as the candidate before they issue the visa?

It is really very unfortunate that all candidates (legitimate and fake)come under the same screening umbrella.

Well, first off, running a consulting business is not illegal. Even doing something shady is not necessarily illegal. Companies that are found to have violated the H1 laws may get banned from applying for H1s for a certain amount of time.

Second, investigations cost money, for people and the time they have to spend. USCIS doesn't have the budget for that, and Congress is not willing to fund USCIS appropriately (they never have.) The H1 fees aren't enough for such kinds of investigations. And the consulates also don't have the money or personnel for that.

And such investigations take a long time. Just look at how long it took ICE to investigate a fraud like TVU. It was obvious to pretty much every observer that TVU was a fraud, but ICE needed evidence that holds up in a court of law. It took them 1 1/2 years or so to gather that evidence. And it is still on-going, they are still analyzing the documents they seized from TVU. Similar with the documents seized from ****.

And finally, it always takes two to Tango. These shady consulting companies wouldn't exist if people would not sign up with them, if people wouldn't switch off their brains when they see the magic letters U, S, and A. Again, look at the TVU case. It was obvious to everybody who signed up with TVU that they were fake. Yet people signed up anyway, thinking they could outsmart the authorities...

[livingwater]

I want to add my case here. My H1B visa was denied and sent back to USCIS in Jan 11. (EVC model).Decision is still pending.

I was forced to withdraw petition by VO but i did not do that.

Later on in July 2 employers sponsored my H1B . first one with EC model for client which i worked for earlier.

Second was direct employment was mid size american company. Both H1s got approved.

I appeared for visa interview in September again and given 221g again for direct employer and 2 weeks later received a letter stating visa denial. No verification was done with employer. No documents were asked by VO.

Attorney has sent emails to consulate several times but they are not responding.

Same point i would like to make here. No matter what the model is EVC,EC or direct employment., US consulates have learnt to abuse their powers for visa issuance.

[JoeF]

They are not "abusing their powers." Since you didn't even want to withdraw the EVC H1, the suspicion that they probably have is that you would be going back to the employer in the EVC case and that you are just abusing the system by getting the vendor and end client to do you a favor.

And the attitude of "it is their fault" doesn't help, either. It is always the others, never you... Always blaming somebody else...