NRI arrested in visa racket in US

New Delhi, Mar 2 (UNI) Minister of state for External Affairs E Ahamed said there have been reports regarding arrest of a NRI, an Indian citizen living in New Jersey on charges of fraud and misue of visa violations.

The NRI, Narendra Manalapa is currently under the custody of United States Marshals Service.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Mr Ahamed said that the NRI had filed about 1000 fraudulent labour-based petitions on behalf of Indian and Pakistani nationals seeking entry into the US.

Investigations reported to have uncovered that two shell companies in New Jersey owned by the Indian citizen were created solely to file labour-related petitions for foreign workers.

The US immigration and customs authorities have seized his assets worth 5,794,592 dollars from his four bank accounts in new Jersey and two brokerage accounts in New York.

Mr Ahmed said since no officer of the passport/immigration office of the govermnment of India was involved in this racket, the question of taking steps to plug loopholes does not arise.

Meanwhile the US Departmet of State and Department of Homeland Security announced measures to speedup the processing of US visas.

Mr Ahamed said that to decrease the wait time for visa apointment for travellers, American Embassies and Consulates have now established procedures to expedite the processing of business visas and are working closely with local American Chambers of Commerce in many countries to expedite the visa process for bona fide business travelers.

UNI/RT LS HT1457