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INS INVESTIGATES POSSIBLE FRAUD AT IMMIGRATION SERVICES COMPANY
AIS, Inc., a Washington, D.C. area business formerly known as American Immigration Services, is being investigated by the Baltimore, MD INS office. The INS suspects the company is improperly using its investor visa program to obtain green cards for its clients. Under the investor visa program, a person can obtain an immigrant visa by investing  million (or 0,000 in certain circumstances) and creating 10 full time jobs in the U.S. The company offers a "risk-free" process by which the immigrant puts up 5,000 and arranges to borrow the rest. AIS guarantees the return of the investment costs.
According to an INS internal memo discovered by The Washington Post, the majority of petitions submitted by AIS are based on "paper investments" at best. The investor visa program requires that the invested money truly be at risk.
AIS blames the current problems on the frequent changes to the investor visa regulations. Among the board members of AIS are Prescott Bush, brother of former President Bush and chairman of the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce, former assistant Secretaries of State William Clark, Jr. and Richard W. Murphy, and retired ambassadors Stephen W. Bosworth and Jack F. Matlock.