Indian-American investor says 20-25% of H-1B holders are frauds

Indian-American tech entrepreneur and investor Vivek Wadhwa has said that 20-25% of people who come to the US on H-1B visas have fake degrees. Speaking on a podcast with Mark Halperin, Wadhwa said staffing companies, known as 'body shops', inflate resumes and qualifications to bring in cheap labour. He said US recruiters should vet applications more carefully.

Wadhwa later posted on X that the H-1B program is so broken it should be ended entirely. He said it once helped America lead in innovation but is now corrupted by unethical practices, long green-card backlogs, and xenophobia. He called for a new startup visa that allows employment-generating companies to bring in genuine talent, giving them freedom and dignity instead of decades of uncertainty.

The Times of India reports that Wadhwa, a supporter of the H-1B program in the past, now believes Congress should scrap it. He said Americans do not hate Indians but rightfully hate the abuse by unethical Indians of a system meant to uplift America. Wadhwa said he wants green-card allocations to increase, noting that the waiting time for Indians has stretched from 18 months to 70 years.