Two Indians have been charged for allegedly recruiting international students at a college in New Jersey, US where they could maintain their student visa status with full-time work rights without having to attend classes.
Harpreet Sachdeva, 26, and Sanjeev Sukhija, 35, have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
The duo has pleaded guilty to the charge and have admitted they intended to profit from the fraud.
Both the men are living in the US on foreign worker visas.
Sachdeva and Sukhija worked for a student recruitment agency that recruited students for University of Northern New Jersey.
UNNJ issued students certificates of eligibility for non-immigrant student status.
This certificate certifies that a foreign national has been accepted to a school and would be a full-time student which enables legitimate foreign students to obtain an F-1 student visa.
Sacheva and Sukhija were among 22 people charged on April 5 with enrolling foreign nationals to UNNJ, the justice department said in a statement.
News agency PTI reported that court papers showed Sachdeva and Sukhija told recruits that they could enrol them at UNNJ without having to attend any classes and that their enrollment would enable to maintain their non-immigrant status.
Federal prosecutors said in the court that Sachdeva obtained and created fraudulent student documents, including attendance records and transcript to deceive immigration officials. Both the accused men also secured fraudulent work authorisations for some of their recruits.
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