US ICE Arrested 8 for Foreign Student Visa Fraud

US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has arrested eight officials of American Health and Technology Institute (AHTI) for their alleged involvement in international student visa fraud.

About 200 students mostly belonging to India have been given the choice to either transfer to other institutes or return to their homeland.

The AHTI officials were manipulating Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) to facilitate illegal entry of foreign students into the United States and then misuse the SEVP to assist the illegal foreign student remain in the country.

US Attorney New Jersey District Fishman said, “The Student and Exchange Visitor Program opens educational opportunities to deserving foreign students and enriches the educational environment at our schools.”

Fishman added that AHTI officials tried to corrupt the program to enable illegal entry in to the country and to reap personal profit.

An immigration consultant and owner of Vision Career Consultants USA Inc, Dhirenkumar Parikh, was also arrested for defrauding the Student and Exchange Visitor Program by providing the documents required to obtain student visa without any verification of the foreign nationals’ information.

Parikh along with others provided counterfeit documents and false certifications of meeting the AHTI admission requirements. Additionally they also forged attendance records and helped some students to hide their previous immigration law violations.

AHTI formerly known as PC Tech Learning Centre is approved to operate in New Jersey by the Department of Education, New Jersey Department of Labour and Workforce. AHTI is also authorised by the US government to enrol non-immigrant alien students, however, it was served with a notice of intent to withdraw its SEVP certification and Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) access on June 5, 2012.

No student enrolled at the AHIT was arrested related to visa fraud charges. Only 8 out of 9 AHIT and VCC officials have been arrested. If convicted, they can face 5 to 10 years imprisonment and $250,000 fine for each of the two counts of charges.

More information about the status of PC Tech Learning Centre students is available at the SEVP website.

In a similar widespread student visa scam, Tri Valley University in United States was shut down.

Tags: AHTI, American Health and Technology Institute (AHTI), ICE, PC Tech Learning Centre, SEVIS, SEVP, Tri-Valley University, United States, United States of America, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Vision Career Consultants