US Student Visa Fraud Case Eight Officials Held

On June 5^th, 2012 federal authorities held 8 officials from both American Health and Technology Institute (AHTI) and Vision Career Consultants USA Inc; this consultant was helping Indian as well foreign students get admission at the AHTI. AHTI is 15 years institute consist of nearly 200 foreign students. AHTI has the authority to operate in New-Jersey by the Department of Education, New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce New Jersey and also have authority to enroll alien students.

In the case of AHTI, a New Jersey-based immigration company Vision Career Consultants USA Inc (VCC), has also been charged of doing visa fraud and its officials arrested.

The names of those arrested and charged – which was released by the US Attorney’s Office, New Jersey – most of them appear to be people of Indian origin. Those charged by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations are Dhirenkumar Patel, Vanrajsinh Chavda, Manamadurai Somalingham, Hemantkumar Patel, Michelle Alphonso, Maulik Gajjar, Tiffany Thomas, Yasmin Rivera, Hemlata Christian. All of them except for Hemantkumar Patel, have been arrested. Somalingam is president of AHTI.

All these people are charged with conspiracy to obtain and use phony visas and conceal illegal aliens. According to the complaint, Dhirenkumar Parikh, the president, owner of the registered agent of VCC, allegedly ran their criminal enterprise through VCC and AHTI, formerly known as ‘PC Tech Learning Center LLC’, this was certified by SEVP to enroll foreign students.

“The Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) opens educational opportunities to deserving foreign students and enriches the educational environment at our schools,” US Attorney Paul J Fishman said.

“Their actions highlight the need for constant vigilance in protecting all avenues of entry into this country. The defendants tried corrupt this worthy programme to enable illegal entry into the country and to reap personal profit,” he said in a statement.