Must Read: Planning/Looking for Pre-Approved LC (possible scam)

[saigc]

Pre-Approved Labor Scam:

there were growning number of pre-approved labor scam. do not rely on anyones words that they can substitute the preapproved labor for you. it may not be suitable for you or they actually do not have one.

take several precaution before falling into their traps:

1. try to get everything in writing in paper or email. most of the telephone conversation will not stand in the court. if the company tries to avoid giving anything in writing or communicating in email then its not safe for anything.

2. you have to see the original labor (most companies would not accept). atleast you have to request that company to forward the originial to your lawyer. let YOUR lawyer match the skill set and analyze the propabilities. do not trust the offering companies words in any way for this pre approved labor. they may not be the right person to assess the possibilities. if they dont have the original labor then either they dont have one or its been used by someone else. do not fall for any tricks in this. no sensible person will leave a company jeopardizing their green card unless there is an issue with the company (the only genuine reason the company can claim is due to layoff but unfortunately they cannot use that labor if there was any layoff for certain period of time - check with your lawyer).

3. question them how they have the pre approved labor. it can be for genuine also. most of the scammers tries to subsititute the labor with another (knowingly or unknowingly) for any reason good or intential profits. be aware that a company cannot substitute a labor when the primary benefiaries i140 is approved and as crossed 180days of filing his/her i485 (irrespective of whether that employee is still employed with them or not). some companies have pre approved labor because the original beneficiaries i140 would have been rejected due to inability to pay by the startup companies or due to labor or immigration violations by the company. get all your questions answered in writing in paper or email ONLY.

4. labor substitution cases are more riskier than rir categories. these cases are scrutinized for everything. these cases were typically very risky in the areas like california, new jersey, new york, delaware, boston, chicago, atlanta.

5. whether for greencard or not - never ever trust anyone by words. you need to have proof of everything in paper or email to claim charges if you have been deceived later.

6. do not trust any official communications who use free or phonic email address. this email communications are hard to prove against those scam in the court (but it is possible and very hard). this not only applies for preapproved labor scenarios but for employment or recruitment or initial discussion also.

7. do not offer or accept to pay for the preapproved labor. there were more number of scams to initially get labor cost from originial beneficiary and then keep on using it for another person in the name of preapproved labor for more profits (may be they get more money than getting profits from billing rate of those candidates in this market). try to avoid companies asking the cost of preapproved labor: it mostly is a scam - a) either the original beneficiary would have paid for it (then why should you pay for it again) b) a company would itself have paid for it (they why it expects the cost from you when it did not ask from original beneficiary).

8. scammer use several tricks and nice words to convince. whatever it is. do not fall prey to it. get everything in writing.

9. be very cautious and do not go for options coming TO YOU or from unknown sources or from free or public forumns.

10. check the h1 or greencard labor cases in http://www.flcdatacenter.com (even if the case shows up it doesnt mean its available or suitable for substitution)

get everything in writing in paper or email. consult with your own lawyer. do not agree to pay for anything. all these scams will end in great disaster for potential candidates. company would also get affected - either debar them from immigration benefits with huge fines etc. but most affected person is the employee for a long time due to the fraud and violations of the companies. try to start from your own labor or use various precaution to use preapproved labor. its better to stay out for 1 year and reenter on fresh h1 and then start greencard again than looking for preapproved labor or joining startup or abusive companies.

irrespective of what ever legal visa status one is in, it is their moral responsibility to safe guard this country and be concerned for its prosperity and clean the society from this kind of abusive scams. be alert - stay alert - know your rights - respect and abide the law even if your company does not (it will surely help you later).

-----

Virtual OFFICE Scam:

in addition to pre-approved labor scams there were growing number of virtual office scams to take advantage of the processing times mainly in areas like vermont, maine, wyoming, montana, north dakota, south dakota, new mexico. labor filed in these states will be scrutinized even more due to suspectable fraud unless its been filed by well reputed organizations. do your homework - can you find atleast one technical or similar job requirement from those states atleast one every month consecutively for 3 months?

uscis and department of labor is well aware of such scams and has been making personal visit to those so-called branch offices to check the legitimacy. if the investigators finds that if there were no such offices or is in residential address then the labor is at jeopardy.

if virtual office scam is proved at a later stage (even after labor approval) then:
1. those labor will be revoked by dol for fraud
2. all the i140 and i485 based on those labor will be denied due to fraud
3. uscis may have the right to revoke the approved green card also.
4. grey area: not sure how its going to impact if the applicant uses ac21.

dol checks to see the legitimacy of the branch office in several ways:
1. to ensure that the branch office is not opened just for the sake for fast processing time
2. the branch office should have some kind of real local operation or business creating some revenue

not sure if the dol checks for the incorporation details in those branch offices (but uscis request for incorporation details from startups and other suspectable consulting firms).

an applicant like you can check the incorporation details (all branch offices will be registered as foreign corporations) from the respective state links from http://www.startupbiz.com/Info_by_State/State_Links.htm

if the prospective company is not listed in the appropriate state corporation search page then expect the labor gets rejected or uscis revoke the greencard any time in the future due to this virtual office scam which is no fault of yours.

.....more to be added

[Jharkhandi]

If it is not a problem then usnycus, I would request this thread to be put permanently after tracker threads(not allowed to go out of page). Some people may like to add their experience also.

This is related to LC and hence aptly posted in Labor Cetification thread.

[usnycus]

Great work saigc.

Thanks guys. Member like you all make moderating this forum so easy.

[orissa]

Hello to everyone:

I am one the so called pre-approved labor victim since 2001. The lawyer was a big cheater he took $18,000 from me for whole preocess pre-approved labor to employed based greencard. INS agent caught him back in july 2002 and now he is serving 10 year in Orange suite.

But thanks to the law enforcement officer and the US District court. They are now in process to return my money some time this week. There were 2700 victime like me.

My humble request to you all of my friend please make sure before you pay for the Pre-Approved Labor, is the one will not put you in nightmere like me.

Thanks

orissa

[saigc]

Hello to everyone:

I am one the so called pre-approved labor victim since 2001. The lawyer was a big cheater he took $18,000 from me for whole preocess pre-approved labor to employed based greencard. INS agent caught him back in july 2002 and now he is serving 10 year in Orange suite.
whether for regular or preapproved labor how did you pay $18,000. did you check with your friends or outside to know how much do lawyers normally charge for it. atleast you could have gone back to home country for 1 year and then come back with fresh 6 year limit instead of paying $18,000 for processing fees considering that it would take around 1 year to save this money in this market scenario (depending on annual income and place of living)

But thanks to the law enforcement officer and the US District court. They are now in process to return my money some time this week. good that you are getting your money backThere were 2700 victime like me. atrocious. can you provide us some news link about that guy. 2700 victims from one guy is too much and unbelievable.

My humble request to you all of my friend please make sure before you pay for the Pre-Approved Labor, is the one will not put you in nightmere like me.
first why should you pay for your labor. think about that. sponsoring company is not doing any favor to you or doing any service. if they need your skills and if they want to make profit on you they have to invest something.

Thanks

orissa

[saigc]

Thanks Jharkhandi & usnycus

[orissa]

Hello to everyone:

Please click the link bellow and read the story about 2700 innocent victim of Labor certification. I will post more link about fake labor and visa scam, here in Washington D.C.
stay tuned to this forum.

http://www.usvisanews.com/memo1783.html




Thanks

orissa

[orissa]

Hello to all friends:

Please clcik the link bellow and read the article about the largest Fake labor and visa scam in the history of United States. More then 2700 victim from all the continents have lost their money and time. Who knows they might be deported sooner or later.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A43070-2002Dec11&notFound=true


Thanks

orissa

[orissa]

Sorry the upper link does not work, check this one bellow.

Sorry for that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...&notFound=true



Thanks

orissa

[BE_CAREFUL]

Previously we had discussion about some FRUAD COMPANIES

CHECK THE FRUAD COMPANIES THREAD ....................... http://boards.immigrationportal.com...threadid=105902


BE CAREFUL.....This companies approch you for RIR LABOR or SUBSTITUTE LABOR IF YOU HAVE PROJECT ON HAND..
THEY NEVER FILE I140 OR I485.....

[pbk]

Guys

Do you think this issue will further dalay the Labor processing??

[astreix]

No..The processing is mainly being affected by prevalent economic conditions

[saigc]

Originally posted by pbk
Guys

Do you think this issue will further dalay the Labor processing??

indirectly yes.

uscis is well aware of these scams. so they started to scrutinize more on these type of cases which result in more delays and denials.

consulates started asking for pictures of the companies, their incorporation records, w2 of all the employees, client details etc to ensure that the companies are genuine and able to pay the stated salary and there really a job offer. how can a consulting firm claim that there is a job opportunity when there is no client info. this is even more bad for startup or any company who dont have direct client.

uscis is also aware of these fraud companies starting virtual office in remote areas like wyoming, north dakota, vermont etc to take advantage of the processing time. there are several cases been reject for this reason when uscis personally visit those places to check the company existence. its so easy for uscis to suspect the virtual office scams because any one can suspect that there can be no job requirement in such places. check in popular job boards. can you see atleast 1 similar job skills in a 2 week or even one month timeframe consecutively 2 or 3 months.

i wouldnt be surprised if uscis or dol revokes all such labor petions for fraud. think what will happend to the beneficiaries? remember that if the labor is revoked for fraud then the corresponding i140 and i485 is also denied or "revoked" at any time in the future. meaning - your green card is at risk anytime in the future if there is change in law - be aware that your greencard can be revoked at any time.

better avoid processing labor from such virtual office. its better late than never.

[orissa]

Washington Post link Published last week.

Another Fake Labor scam , Click the link and read.


Thank you

orissa

[assur]

See please if interested (Just copy and past).
http://www.naea.us/docs/foreign_labor_letter1.pdf
http://www.murthy.com/rir.html
http://www.familyinjustice.com/h1b/dol_lie.html
http://www.immigrationlinks.com/news/news1371.htm
http://www.visalaw.com/03mar2/9mar203.html
http://www.steinreport.com/archives/000304.html

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030902-121419-2236r.htm

http://www.rescueamericanjobs.net/articles/h1b/20030615_aflcio.html

http://www.garmo.com/archives/00000081.shtml

http://www.employmentvisas.com/viewheadlines.asp?HeadlineID=61

http://www.oig.dol.gov/doltopchall.pdf
http://www.oig.dol.gov/public/media/oi/mainz02.htm
http://www.visalaw.com/02dec2/10dec202.html

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ETA/Title_20/Part_656/20CFR656.30.htm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C80354%2C00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A43070-2002Dec11&notFound=true

[saigc]

assur
great links. appreciate your inputs.

[GC_Gee_See]

hey i dont know how to post a new message, so i just decided to reply.
couple of questions:
1. is there a time period for which an approved labor is considered 'alive and valid'?
i have an approved labor letter dated 2001, so i was wondering about its validity
2. i went to http://www.flcdatacenter.com/casesearchperm.asp and put in the name of the company without any start or end date and the applicant's name didnt show up in the list. is this because the applicant didnt pursue it further (for whatever reason) or is it because something fishy happened?

[Jharkhandi]

hey i dont know how to post a new message, so i just decided to reply.
couple of questions:
1. is there a time period for which an approved labor is considered 'alive and valid'?
i have an approved labor letter dated 2001, so i was wondering about its validity
2. i went to http://www.flcdatacenter.com/casesearchperm.asp and put in the name of the company without any start or end date and the applicant's name didnt show up in the list. is this because the applicant didnt pursue it further (for whatever reason) or is it because something fishy happened?

Not the right place. Create a new thread for these things please and pm me once done - so that I can delete my post in this thread. Click on Forum Tool on top and you will see how to create a new thread!

1. No it is valid forever.
2. That data is not 100% - it has errors and ommissions too.

[lcrusader]

My company opened an office in Wisconsin for LC processing in March of this year and applied for LC during the same timeframe. Would this be considered a virtual office even though my company is paying the state tax on my income?

My LC hasnt been picked up for processing yet. Should I be worried that my processing would hit a glitch in future?

Thanks

[saigc]

its hard to comment without knowing anything about your company.

to file a labor the company dont have to have a branch office (registered foreign corporation) in that state. your company has to convince with strong proof to file in a state other than corporate headquarters or its branch office that it has "guaranteed" future employment in that state/location. most big companies may not be suspected. smaller or startup or consulting companies may not find it easy to convince these type of queries.

if your company files the gc labor claiming it as a branch or where there is no proper revenues in the past then it may face problem. most impact for YOUR gc.

follow the link below and search your company name listed. if you dont find your company listed (check the full status) then you know what your future holds for you.

http://www.wdfi.org/corporations/crispix/

just to give you some cool air state of wisconsin are not that suspectable as compared to virtual offices or satellite offices like north dakota, south dakota, wyoming, new hamshire, vermont, new mexico and montana. can you find atleast one job requirement matching your skills atleast once every month. even if you do then it may be a gc labor advertisement filed by so called satellite offices.

last but not least even if you get your gc approved filing from these virtual offices then you HAVE to work in that location/state for certain period of time after your gc is approved. failing which you are at risk loosing your gc at the time of renewal or citizenship or when uscis/dol amends new laws whichever is earlier.

file from good genuine companies from a legitimate appropriate state. dont worry about the processing time. processing time will flutuates even in the above mentioned states. its better late than never or losing later.

do your math. its your life.

your company is NOT paying your state tax. its YOU. its deducted from YOUR paycheck. you may be working in wisconsin to get taxed by that state. it has no connection to your greencard labor. note: your company making revenue from wisconsin. it need not have branch office in that state but should have been registered as foreign corporation. if they dont then they have been violating the law but this is not serious or have no impact on employees. also this can be corrected by the company later may with some fines.

[saigc]

watch out.

wish this is true

http://boards.immigrationportal.com/...518#post816518

[idli1829]

Hi folks,
My employer recently started my GC process from Wyoming. My labor was applied about a week back. Through this forum (http://boards.immigrationportal.com/...=wyoming+labor) I found out about the virtual office scam and that's why I am very concerned now.
My employer's website does not mention that he has an office in WY and also I did a search on the Wyoming corporations database (http://www.startupbiz.com/Info_by_State/State_Links.htm) and did not find my company listed here. I am not sure what to do. Before talking to my employer about this I wanted to know if there is something I am missing. So far he has been acting as though everything is o.k. May be everything is o.k. and I am just panicing but I want to be sure. I am ready to withdraw my application if it really is not o.k. I would like to hear from you guys about any thoughts you mught have on this.

Please let me know ASAP.
Thanks

[saigc]

your employer is not required to have branch office in WY to file labor in that state (provided they did not claim that that state is one of their branch).

Check this thread for more info:
http://boards.immigrationportal.com/...d.php?t=129771

did your employer ever claim that they have branch office in wy. if so then based on your findings its better you stay away from such fraud employer.

abusive bodyshoppers will use sweet words and act as if they are the only genuine company and have been involved in this business as a service to the community and they pay tax regularly blah blah blah. in realty they are not much affected. they just dont care. when dol and uscis finds this they may just get away with fines. but your life is a big question mark?

stay away if any bodyshopper uses terms like "doing as a service" or "getting peanuts from your project". do your homework. research about companies in various forums and websites. stay away if you find their job advertisements in free website or "community" based forum or sites.

do not pay for your gc atleast until your i140 gets approved. get everything in writing.

[idli1829]

Thanks for the informative response.
To answer your question:
No. My employer never claimed that he has a branch office in WY, however he has one in Illinois. According to the original plan he was supposed to file it from IL but he changed it in the last minute (not sure why) to WY. At that time I was glad thinking that WY is much faster.

Having said that, what are your thoughts on this? What do you suggest?

REgarding IL, I just checked the corporations database in IL and I did find his company but guess what...it says, "Status=Not good standing" and both Qualification date and Agent change date is Jun 2003. I don't understand a thing about that. Do you have any idea? Do you think I should ask him to file it through IL instead of WY. Any thoughts?

Thanks again

[gc_reddy]

Hi,
I found one company who is giving preapproved labor

He is saying that the labour which he has is Any Engineering Background
There is no specific for Electronics or Mechanical or Computer

Is it beliavable ?

and what he is saying is, First i have to transfer my h1 to that company
then after receiving he will apply for I-140

and then after 2 months he will apply for 485.

He is saying if we follow this method, there will be no issues...

Is it true ?

What are the issues we may get with preapproved labours ?

[gp111]

Ask him to send you copy of LC & get it verified by your attorney... Then tell him you will only join after you get RECEIPT of Concurrent filing of I-140/485/EAD/AP... if he has good intentions he must not have any problem with any of these...

Hi,
I found one company who is giving preapproved labor

He is saying that the labour which he has is Any Engineering Background
There is no specific for Electronics or Mechanical or Computer

Is it beliavable ?

and what he is saying is, First i have to transfer my h1 to that company
then after receiving he will apply for I-140

and then after 2 months he will apply for 485.

He is saying if we follow this method, there will be no issues...

Is it true ?

What are the issues we may get with preapproved labours ?

[gc_reddy]

What he is saying is, If we do Concurrent filing both I-140 and 485,
We may get lot of issues with pre approved labour....

[gp111]

That is not true at all... He just wants to delay the process by saying that.. Concurrent Filed I-140 & Single I-140 are not different or do not have different processing.. if there will be issues, it will be there in concurrent or not....

What he is saying is, If we do Concurrent filing both I-140 and 485,
We may get lot of issues with pre approved labour....

[saigc]

in legal point of view your employer should be ok provided they give enough evidence to prove future job availablity in WY state. but who knows whats your employers real intention or "issue" is. considering your findings you should be more careful in researching about them (may be they just skipped filing the tax due date which can be corrected shortly. who knows?). negative part is they may not be able to prove ability to pay clause. how long is your employer in business. how many employees (revenue creating employees = H1s currently with them).

considering all your points its better for you to check the status of past labor decision status of that company from chicago dol using their phone number(s) using automated phone ((312) 793-6831)/email status check system.

if you find few or many recent "denials" then there should be something serious with that company and may be thats the reason they opt to file from wyoming. watch out.

[GC_GoneCase]

What he is saying is, If we do Concurrent filing both I-140 and 485,
We may get lot of issues with pre approved labour....

I was also contacted by one such employer for substitute labor. I was told that they had been advised by Attorney Sheela Murthy that first H1 should be transferred and then file 140/485 after few months.

I declined to accept the substitute labor. No point in waisting few months on H1 and then struggling to get 140 filed.

I am not sure if it was same company.