US university visa scam just tip of iceberg: Report

Updated on: Saturday, March 26, 2011

A visa scam at Tri Valley University (TVU) in California, that has affected hundreds of Indian students, is just the tip of an iceberg and a large number of such institutes exist in the US, a probe report in Washington has said.

“Other colleges – most of them unaccredited – exploit byzantine federal regulations, enrolling almost exclusively foreign students and charging them upwards of $3, 000 for a chance to work legally in the US,” said the report released by Chronicle of Higher Education. Many of their practices – for instance, holding some classes on only three weekends per semester – are unconventional, to say the least, the report added.

“These colleges generate millions of dollars in profits because they have the power to help students get visas,” it said. It added these institutions have managed to go mostly unnoticed in the US. In more than a dozen interviews to the Chronicle, students at these institutions say that an American degree – any American degree – will help them get a better job or earn a promotion back home, the report said.

It said "homeland security officials claim they are not blind to the existence of other Tri-Valleys, although they wouldn’t comment on, or even confirm, current investigations." According to a federal complaint filed in a California court in January, the TVU had helped foreign nationals, mostly Indians, illegally acquire immigration status. TVU is said to have 1, 555 students.AGENCIES

US university visa scam just tip of iceberg: Report

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