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INS TARGETING INDIAN COMPUTER CASES
INS service centers are now routinely investigating H-1B petitions filed by Indian computer programmers filing at the US consulate in Chennai. Recently, the Nebraska Service Center provided the American Immigration Lawyers Association with a copy of a checklist used to determine which cases will be targeted. More than 1,000 cases alone have been referred to the US Consulate in Chennai by the Nebraska Service Center alone. According to the INS memorandum, the cases are especially likely to be investigated if two or more factors listed below are met: 
academic degree certificates that appear suspect for South Indian Universities with emphasis on Osmania, Nagarjuna and Andhra Universities 
potentially fraudulent Specialty Work Experience reference documentation from suspect southern Indian computer companies, especially from the Hyderabad and Secunderabad areas 
the beneficiary appears to possess a degree unrelated to the work he/she will be performing 
the petitioner is a small, start-up computer company with an insufficiently developed business history. 
The petitioner or petitioner representative is suspected or has a history of submitting fraudulent petition documents. 
The INS memorandum also had specific comments on evidence. They include the following: 
if academic degree certificates are referred for verification, the certification number of the certificate must be clearly legible. Degree copies for Andhra, Gulbarga and Jawaharial Nehru Technological Universities must contain the reverse side of the degree and marks cards must be available for degrees from Bangalore. 
Provisional degree certificates more than a year old are not acceptable to the Chennia consulate 
Specialty work experience letters must contain readable company names, addresses and telephone numbers 
Non-academic computer training certificates are not considered evidence of specialty education/experience by the consulate and are not verifiable by the Chennai Anti-Fruad unit. 
Chennia normally will only attempt to verify a petition’s academic or specialty documentation if it is from South India. 
There is no official word on the number of cases affected by this new policy.