Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:48:56 -0700 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: virtual H-1Bs in Maine To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter It often frustrates me that even many activist critics of the H-1B program do not understand that the problem is NOT one of enforcement of the laws. The problem is that the laws are so full of loopholes that the laws are useless. Employers can pay H-1Bs below-market wages while still being fully compliant with the law. See for example http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/GAOCompliance.txt I have thus been very reluctant to say much about the enforcement problems which do occur, as I consider it as distracting attention from the main problems. And, as I have said, politicians actually love to talk about enforcement, for this very reason--distracting attention from the main issues. They can beef up enforcement and then claim that they've solved the H-1B mess, when in fact enforcement is just a minor part of the problem. They are beholden to the industry for its campaign contributions, and thus are unwilling to change those loophole-ridden laws. Hence the great interest of Sen. Collins below, for instance. Same for Sen. Snowe. (Rep. Michaud's comments are a little better.) Having said that, though, the enclosed articles are quite remarkable. My hat is off to Mr. Wickenheiser for picking up this story and doing a first-rate job of investigative journalism. A couple of quick points, however: The article does not fully distinguish between the H-1B and green card programs, especially regarding the point of whether employers are or are not required to give hiring priority to Americans. It appears that the reporter is aware of the difference, but due to editing or whatever, even a careful reader would be misled, I think. The article implies that only the small Indian companies abuse the process, while the Intels and Microsofts are properly limiting their usage of foreign worker programs to hire "the best and the brightest" from around the world. That is incorrect. While I do support hiring outstanding foreign talents, only a small percentage of the imported workers are in that category, as I've shown. Furthermore, the big firms are just as guilty as the smaller ones; see my analysis of Intel H-1B wages at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/IntelH1BWages.txt I would really like to know how the reporter here can flatly state that these firms, in his words, "use the system legitimately." Norm http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/immigration/060924immigmain.html http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/immigration/060924immigside.html Rubber-stamp bureaucracy By MATT WICKENHEISER, Staff Writer Maine Sunday Telegram Sunday, September 24, 2006 In early 2004, Narendra V. Mandalapa leased a cubicle in Portland and began asking the federal government for permission to bring dozens of foreign software engineers to Maine. The U.S. Department of Labor agreed there was a need for the high-tech workers and approved most of the requests. But Cybersoftec Inc., Mandalapa's company, was actually a shell company created solely "for the purpose of filing fraudulent labor-based petitions for foreign workers," federal agents said. The government alleged that he copied and altered foreign labor approvals for other workers and submitted them along with other paperwork to Citizenship and Immigration Services to apply for green cards. Mandalapa was charged in a 29-count indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of filing a fraudulent immigration document. He will be sentenced on Nov. 27 in the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J. His case is an egregious example of problems with the federal system that allows skilled foreigners to work in the United States, a system that is intended to protect American workers from unfair foreign competition. It's a program that has been manipulated by some firms engaged in the highly profitable business of connecting foreign workers with companies seeking affordable high-technology employees. A Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found that dozens of high-tech staffing companies opened tiny offices or leased cubicles in Maine and other rural states in 2004 and early 2005 and filed immigration papers for thousands of foreigners. The U.S. Department of Labor routinely approved these requests, even though state officials protested. In many cases, the companies' connection to Maine was tenuous. In several cases, landlords never even heard of the companies that called their buildings home on federal applications. These companies were working through a U.S. Department of Labor green-card program that changed on March 28, 2005. Green cards allow foreigners to live and work in the United States indefinitely. They may change jobs as they wish. The companies also were making applications through the H1B visa program, which allows skilled workers into the country on a temporary basis in the employ of specific firms. That process remains the same today as it was during 2004 and 2005. A number of companies may have skirted federal regulations by applying for foreign workers through Maine and other states where they would never actually work. In doing so, they bypassed a process for making sure that they didn't cost American workers jobs or undercut their wages. And there are concerns that the government doesn't really know where these foreigners are and what they're doing, which could be a security risk. "If these workers did not actually go to work for true Maine employers, we don't know what their real purpose is for being in the United States, nor what they did after they entered the country," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Systems are in place to track the location of foreign workers in the United States. The concern, though, is that they too could be circumvented by individuals or organizations who failed to provide accurate information while trying to bring those workers into the country. An estimated 11 percent of H1B visa petitions are fraudulent, Collins said, citing a recent Department of Homeland Security report. Government auditors also have warned for more than a decade that the U.S. Department of Labor's role in allowing foreign workers to enter America is flawed and susceptible to fraud. The cautions continue today, even as the nation considers a major expansion in the number of foreign guest workers allowed into the country. Even critics of the foreign labor system acknowledge that the United States benefits from bringing in top workers from other countries, and that's why proponents are trying to expand foreign guest-worker programs like the H1B visa system. They argue that limiting American companies' ability to bring over the best and brightest also limits their competitiveness in a global economy. Corporate voices calling for expansion include some of the nation's largest companies and industry groups, such as Microsoft Corp. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Maine employers like Fairchild Semiconductor, Wright Express and hospitals around the state also use the system legitimately. "Here in the U.S., we are seeing many jobs go unfilled because we cannot get the best qualified candidates into the United States due to the limits of H1B visas," Microsoft spokesperson Ginny Terzano said. "The shortage of high-skilled workers hurts the United States' ability to innovate, compete and create new jobs across the U.S." The U.S. Department of Labor is the first step in a complicated system for companies looking to employ foreign workers. If their request is certified by Labor, the application moves on to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, then to the State Department if the workers are abroad. The green card and H1B visa programs have existed since 1940 and 1990, respectively. The H1B program covers skilled professionals such as doctors, accountants, engineers and speciality occupations such as fashion models. There are other visa programs allowing other types of workers into the country, as well, such as the H2A program for agriculture workers and the H1C program for nurses. The newspaper investigation focused on Labor's part of the H1B and green card systems, called the "labor condition" and "labor certification" processes. Labor condition approvals must be granted before a worker can receive an H1B visa, which is good for three years, plus a three-year extension. Labor certifications must be approved for green cards, which let foreigners work here indefinitely. Both processes are supposed to ensure that American workers aren't supplanted by foreigners, but the newspaper identified problems with both programs in 2004 and early 2005: Companies leased cubicle-sized offices in Maine and asked for permission to bring thousands of foreign high-technology workers here with green cards and visas, even though employers in the state were hiring fewer people in these fields. The U.S. Labor Department routinely certified the requests. Certifications were granted even when state officials opposed the requests as being obviously improper. The officials raised those concerns in person and detailed them in written warnings on certification paperwork. Similar problems with the foreign worker certification process occurred in other rural states, including New Hampshire, Vermont and Nebraska. Department of Labor officials would not comment on many aspects of the system, but did say that they are implementing new procedures to identify fraud. Critics argue that serious flaws remain in the system. "Unfortunately there has been fraud in the H1B visa process for a number of years. It is unacceptable and should be addressed in any immigration legislation that is enacted," U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, a member of the House subcommittee that oversees immigration affairs and a vocal critic of the program, told the newspaper in an e-mail interview. "Failure to uphold current immigration laws shows that we should not enact a new guest worker program until we are able to enforce our current laws and secure our borders." The Labor Department certification process is designed to keep foreign workers from taking jobs away from U.S. citizens. If the Labor Department certifies an application, it means the agency is sure "there are no qualified U.S. workers able, willing, qualified and available to accept the job at the prevailing wage for that occupation in the area of intended employment and that employment of the alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers," according to a statement on the department's Web site. Some companies filing through Maine for certification of green cards in 2004 and 2005 hoped to take advantage of quicker processing in rural states, even though their right to do so has been questioned by state officials, according to documents and interviews. The state officials said they raised concerns with the U.S. Department of Labor, but they were ignored. For example, on green card labor certification paperwork released by the state, now-retired state employee Vaughn LeBlanc wrote "Not a valid Maine employer," but the application was certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. Officials in the rural states speculate some companies were trying to get paperwork processed ahead of the change in federal immigration procedures. Some companies also may have worked through these states because there would have been less American competition for particular high-tech jobs, which they hoped to fill with specific foreigners. And because companies must pay foreign workers the going rate for jobs at the specific worksite listed in the certification paperwork - rather than the prevailing wages from more urban areas where they'll likely be working - the hiring firms also may have taken advantage of Maine's comparatively modest wages for both green card and H1B applications, suggest state officials. They also suspect companies wanted to avoid scrutiny by H1B program detractors, who focus primarily on urban high-technology centers. During 2004 and 2005, 46 out-of-state companies leased single, small cubicles and rooms in business centers and office buildings and listed these addresses as the sites where 10-plus foreigners would work, according to state and federal records. In at least two cases, landlords or property managers never heard of the companies that claimed offices in their buildings. In other instances, companies kept Maine offices, with rarely seen representatives stopping in periodically to pick up immigration paperwork sent by the federal government - or even having the mail forwarded to their out-of-state offices. One firm, Objectsoft Global Services Inc., had a South Portland office for about a year and filed labor certification and condition applications for almost 50 foreign workers, according to state and federal records. Today, its South Portland offices are closed but are still listed on Objectsoft's Web site, along with a phone number that connects to a Durham carpentry business. The owner said he is not connected to the technology company and has held that phone number for 12 years. Messages left at New York offices listed on Objectsoft's Web site weren't returned. Star Schemas Inc. lists its "global headquarters" as 3 North Lancey St., Suite S12, in Pittsfield, Maine, on its Web site, along with offices in New Jersey and Toronto. The company rented about 650 square feet of office space there for about a year and has been gone since July 2005, the landlord said. Star Schemas filed H1B visa labor condition applications for 400 positions in 2004 and 2005, listing Maine as the worksite, according to federal records. The number listed for the Pittsfield office was disconnected. Calls to the company's New Jersey offices weren't returned. Apex Technology Systems Inc. lists an office at 8 North Main St. in Rockland on its Web site, along with its headquarters in South Plainfield, N.J., and branches in Des Moines, Iowa, and Hyderabad, India. Apex President Jitan Patel said in a phone interview that his company opened the office in Rockland for a variety of reasons, including the speed of processing green card labor certifications in Maine. "Initially we planned if we would go through Maine it would be faster, and we could get more business," Patel said. "In Maine there's not a lot of companies for competition, like New Jersey and New York." "We were trying to do projects, to bid some projects locally," said Patel. "We had around 25 employees which we were going to move to Rockland." He said his company isn't in Maine any longer. But Reed Brower, who bought the building last summer, said he never heard of Apex. "They weren't there when I bought it six months ago," Brower said in February. The previous building owners were accountants who had their offices at 8 North Main. Jill Porter, office manager for Norton, Masters & Alex, CPAs, said she had never heard of Apex. She said the accounting firm had moved out of the building in 2003, and continued to own it until it was sold to Brower last summer. The only group or company to occupy 8 North Main in the interim was the Republican party, for a short period, said Porter. "No other groups, no other anything," she said. Asked about this, Patel answered: "We were hardly there in Maine. The office was very small. We didn't have time to expand the office." According to state records, Apex filed for 154 labor certification applications for employees. However, Patel said he didn't think that number was correct. "That sounds high," he said. Patel did say Apex had withdrawn any applications filed through Maine, because business opportunities didn't pan out. The newspaper was unable to verify if the company's certification applications were approved or withdrawn because the most recent federal data available on green card certifications did not include information on Apex. Apex isn't the only company that's severed its Maine connections. Officials in Maine and other states believe that small tech staffing companies moved to rural areas to take advantage of faster green card paperwork processing speeds. Prior to March 28, 2005, companies seeking green cards for foreign workers would first apply with state work force agencies. Rural states tended to have lighter caseloads than their urban counterparts, and so often processed the paperwork much more quickly. After March 28, 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor's green card labor certification system became automated. Companies began to apply directly to the U.S. Department of Labor for certification, instead of starting the process at the state level. Officials in Maine and other states believe in 2004 and early 2005 the companies were unsure of what the change in law would do. To get green card applications into the system prior to the change, they opened offices in rural states and filed numerous labor certification applications. Following the change in law, there's no paperwork processing-based reason to be in rural states, so many companies are gone, said officials in several states. Out of the 46 companies that applied for green card or H1B visa labor certifications in 2004 and 2005, 11 have since closed their Maine offices. In at least 10 other instances, the newspaper was unable to determine any connection at all to the state of Maine. The remaining 25 companies say they either have some employees still in the state or still rent cubicles where their people sometimes work. For example, Vikram Jangam, president of New York-based Sriven Systems, said his company opened offices at 477 Congress St. in Portland to serve clients in northern New England. It's one of the companies still active in Maine, according to Jangam. "We had a lot of clients in New Hampshire, Boston and the Maine area," said Jangam. "I tried to find office space in Boston. It was too expensive. I didn't find any office in New Hampshire." He liked Portland, though. "The city resembles New York, with very professional offices," said Jangam. Jangam said Sriven has 14 or 15 people working in Maine, out of 477 Congress St. The company applied for 27 certifications for green cards in 2004 and 2005 through Maine. It also filed 67 applications through Maine for certifications for 133 foreign workers in the H1B visa program. About half of the companies that opened shop in Maine had offices at 480 and 477 Congress St. in Portland, home to the Portland Business Center and David Glaser's Executive Office Centers Inc., respectively. Those two businesses offer short-term leases for companies. "It is my understanding from the phone calls that they were all in the business of employment placement for individuals from India coming here," said Glaser. He said a few of his tenants actually had people in the office full-time. Others had people stop in occasionally, he said. Glaser said some companies inquired about becoming "virtual tenants." A virtual tenant is an out-of-state company that doesn't have a physical presence at the business center, but rather uses it as a mail drop spot. It also has a local phone number, with phones answered by a receptionist or forwarded automatically to out-of-state offices. Glaser said he told the companies that if they planned to file for immigration papers from Maine, they would have to have a physical presence in the state. "Yes, it's shopping jurisdictions - that's what they were doing. That wasn't below the board," said Glaser. "The question was where can they get work papers timely. It's just the paperwork is on someone's desk in New York for two years or it goes through Maine in 60 days." Laurence Kelly, president of the Portland Business Center, which has since moved to 415 Congress St., said a number of tenants left after the federal immigration system changed in early 2005. "We heard that there was going to be a change in immigration (policy) that could affect our virtual tenants; that raised our eyebrows," said Kelly. "We lost about a third of them - quite a few, 25 or so." Kelly added, "I can't comment on our current clients, but each one, every virtual tenant we have now has a physical address (somewhere) and Web site. They're credible." The often tenuous connection to Maine among companies trying to bring foreign workers into the country - ostensibly to work in this state - raises serious questions during a time of heightened security concerns, said Sen. Collins. If workers didn't actually come to Maine for positions, no one knows where they actually went or tracks their movement, Collins said. Rich Stana, director of homeland security and justice at the Government Accountability Office, said last week that Homeland Security has implemented technology that tracks visa holders when they enter the country. However, said Stana, the agency is still working out how they can track the exit of individuals with visas. Stana also said there is no "foolproof, periodic and systematic" process for checking that H1B workers are actually at the worksites specified by their employers on immigration paperwork. "The Department of Labor doesn't seem to view it as its job, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has a fraud detection unit, but doesn't have a systematic process for reviewing applications for fraud," said Collins. "For example, there doesn't seem to be even a cursory review to make sure that the business is legitimate and actually exists." Collins said she has told Homeland Security that the agency needs to do a better job in detecting wrongdoing, and that auditors have found easy opportunities to defraud the system in "virtually every program." The agency says it will develop a system to screen petitions against a fraud profile and flag suspicious ones, Collins said. "That would be a good step, but it's a system that should already be in place," she said. Collins said that in addition to potential security issues, she was also concerned that companies that are misusing the foreign labor system may be taking jobs away from American workers. "The system, through the Department of Labor's review, is supposed to guard against that," said Collins. And, she said, because the H1B visa program has a national cap, any misuse of the system could hurt companies and sectors that have a true need for foreign workers. "Many legitimate Maine businesses have expressed concerns that they can't get the workers they need," said Collins. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said possible lapses in federal oversight should be addressed quickly. Snowe said she has asked the Department of Labor to examine the "possibility and repercussions of possible fraud in Maine and the processing of green cards and H1B visas overall." "As a nation, it is absolutely imperative that we remain vigilant in ensuring that there are sufficient procedures and safeguards in place to monitor every immigration program to prevent abuses that could impact Maine's labor force," said Snowe. U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, said that some sectors still have difficulty filling positions or finding qualified American employees, so there is a valuable role for some foreign workers in our economy. "At the same time, however, reports of fraud do call into question the domestic recruiting practices of U.S. companies, and the issue of whether they are trying hard enough to fill the needed positions with American workers," Michaud said The U.S. Department of Labor asserts that a new, automated system companies used to apply for foreign labor certification will make it easier for federal officials to spot and fight fraud in the green card system. Labor spokesman John Chavez said in an e-mailed statement this June that his agency has taken a number of steps to improve the foreign labor certification system following auditors' reports, including the new automated green card system. "To strengthen the integrity of applications processing, the program features automated electronic and random audits, which include hands-on review of applications for substantive or technical deficiencies or inconsistencies," Chavez wrote. "Human checks are performed to ensure the legitimacy of the employers filing on behalf of foreign workers and to confirm that the employer is sponsoring the worker named on the application. "The department has proposed regulations to reduce and deter the incidence of fraud in the permanent labor certification program." But government auditors worry that the changes will make it even easier for unscrupulous individuals to game the system. "Labor certification remains a major (Inspector General) concern. Recent . . . investigations have revealed corrupt employers, labor brokers, and lawyers who file fraudulent applications," auditors wrote in a November 2005 report. "The prevalence of these cases consistently demonstrates the susceptibility of the program to fraud." An Office of the Inspector General official said in May that auditors in his department were looking to see if changes to the system have helped deter fraud. Even though the Cybersoftec fraud came before the 2005 change in the green-card application process, the case provides a stark example of how some try to misuse the labor certification and condition application programs. A federal grand jury in May indicted Mandalapa, Cybersoftec's president, on 29 counts of immigration fraud, money laundering and mail fraud in the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J. He pleaded guilty in June to one count of filing a fraudulent immigration document in a plea bargain, and faces penalties of 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine. He's set to be sentenced on Nov. 27. Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, said earlier this month that investigators were still working to determine how many people fraudulently entered the country and where they are. These workers were willing to pay Mandalapa as much as $22,000 each for his efforts to help them get immigration paperwork, according to court records. The records show that agents seized $5.7 million in assets from Mandalapa's bank and brokerage accounts early this year, and at least $2.1 million came from fees paid by foreigners seeking fraudulent paperwork through Cybersoftec. Mandalapa had been denied entry to the country in the past and had slipped back into the United States under an assumed name, said his attorney, Eric Breslin. Breslin said the breadth of charges in the indictment led Mandalapa to plead guilty to a count that specifically charged him, according to court documents, with filing a fraudulent green card application for himself, under the name "Ramesh Dashrth." "His potential exposure, were this case brought to trial and (he) convicted, was extremely significant, especially in the life of a young man who has young children," Breslin said. Attempts to interview Mandalapa through his attorneys were unsuccessful. According to Maine records, Cybersoftec filed about 50 labor certification applications for green cards in this state, at least 20 of which were certified by the U.S. Department of Labor; it's unclear what happened to the other 30. Federal records listed the company as filing for 66 labor condition applications for H1B visas. All of those applications were approved. Mandalapa said in the applications that the workers would be based at 480 Congress, then home to the Portland Business Center. The company also had close to 100 visa requests certified through New Hampshire, federal records show. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wouldn't say whether any of the green card certification requests Mandalapa filed from Maine were fraudulent. The grand jury indictment was based on the allegedly fraudulent green card certification requests filed through New Hampshire. A Web search for "Cybersoftec and Maine" found one of the company's job advertisements for high-tech workers on an Internet site focused on workers from India. The May 28, 2005, ad said the company offered "processing from Maine and New Hampshire if required." The government claims in a news release that Mandalapa filed almost 1,000 "possibly fraudulent" labor-based petitions on behalf of Indian and Pakistani nationals who wanted to enter or stay in the United States. Between 20 and 30 of the nationals told agents that Mandalapa said he'd file foreign labor requests with the government for them, according to court documents. In a news release, Thomas E. Manifase, acting Newark special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said immigration benefit fraud is "a multibillion-dollar business." "This type of fraud not only steals jobs from legitimate workers, but it also (allows) individuals to illegally enter the United States and creates a risk to national security and public safety," Manifase said in the release. The spokesman for the unit said no one would comment beyond what was said in the release. According to the court documents, Mandalapa submitted forms that contained forged identification numbers and certification stamps. Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman confirmed that her office received a complaint about Cybersoftec, but would not discuss the details. "We did report that to the feds, as we do with any other (complaint)," said Fortman. "The feds are responsible for enforcing the law." Dean Barron, owner and manager of the Portland Business Center, said Mandalapa came into Cybersoftec's rented office about once a month for nine or 10 months. The company received regular phone calls and mail, said Barron. "He was getting a deluge of mail at one point; I believe most of it was from the Department of Homeland Security, or Immigration, something like that," said Barron. Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791-6316 or at: mwickenheiser@pressherald.com Some workers never stepped foot in Maine By MATT WICKENHEISER, Staff Writer Maine Sunday Telegram Sunday, September 24, 2006 Jayasudha Domala came to the United States as a student and stayed as a green card holder, thanks to paperwork initially filed through the state of Maine. Domala never worked here, however. She worked as a computer consultant with the Georgia-based Virtue Group for a year-and-a-half, serving clients based around her Chicago home, she said. Virtue Group began the process to get her green card by applying for labor certification with the U.S. Department of Labor through Maine. Her experiences, and those of others like her, illustrate the path many skilled immigrants take to get to this country and stay here. It's a path that in some cases led through Maine - at least on paper. During 2004 and 2005, 46 out-of-state companies leased single small cubicles in business centers and office buildings and listed these addresses on immigration paperwork as the sites where 10-plus foreigners would work, according to state and federal records. Eleven have since closed their Maine offices. In at least 10 other instances, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram was unable to determine any connection at all to the state of Maine. The remaining 25 companies say they either have some employees still in the state or still rent cubicles where their people sometimes work. The newspaper tried to locate about 150 immigrants who had labor certification applications for green cards filed through the state of Maine in 2004 and 2005, using a combination of Internet searches and directory assistance. Most phone numbers had been disconnected, likely because computer consultants working for temporary staffing firms generally don't work in any one location for very long. But 15 of the out-of-state phone numbers were still active. Eleven of those workers didn't return messages, but four of these workers, including Domala, agreed to speak with the newspaper. There's no indication that these workers did anything improper, but their stories help shed light on foreign workers' efforts to get green cards. For Domala, at least, her work with the Virtue Group led to a green card. A green card means an immigrant has stability and the ability to work in the United States indefinitely, and often leads to a staff position with a company. After finishing her master's in computer chip design at San Jose State University in 2002, Domala said, she took a job with a Detroit-based computer consulting staffing agency, then moved to Chicago and took a job with the Virtue Group, which had offices in Alpharetta, Ga., and Portland, at the Portland Business Center, which provides office space on short-term leases. "The reason I went to that company was the green card," said Domala. "They filed my green card, I shifted to that company." Virtue is essentially a high-tech temp agency that deals almost exclusively in foreign workers. Those firms are sometimes called "body shops." These firms file immigration papers for workers and contract them out to companies or governments that need computer workers for short-term projects, ranging anywhere from three months to a few years. The clients pay the firms for the workers. The firms take a percentage of the pay, typically 20 percent, and then pay the foreign workers the rest. Domala said she worked for a client in Chicago, and never worked in Maine, though Virtue filed for her labor certification papers through its Portland offices, and asserted on the paperwork that she would work here at 480 Congress St. In files for the Virtue Group released to the newspaper by the state, a Maine official denied three labor certification requests outright in February 2004 because the company didn't have an unemployment insurance tax account set up with the state. Paying unemployment insurance on workers indicates a company actually has employees based in Maine, required before a company could file for immigration papers through Maine. Eight other applications were approved by the U.S. Department of Labor later in 2004 and in early 2005, indicating that the Virtue Group had eventually set up an unemployment tax account. In one application, the Michigan attorney filing the paper work asserted "VIRTUE GROUP LLC is a well established and a MAINE based company," uppercasing the words on the forms. On its Web site, Virtue lists offices in Maine, Georgia and India. Several messages left on voicemail at its local office at the Portland Business Center were not answered. Someone did answer the phone on a July call and promised a quick call back. When no one called back after several hours, a reporter went to the Portland Business Center and was told no one was in the offices. A call to the company's Georgia office made the same day also wasn't returned; nor was a call to the company's Portland office made last week. Domala today has a staff position at Abbott Labs in Illinois. "Getting the green card makes it easier to get the job," said Domala. FASTEST WAY TO A GREEN CARD Rajesh Mohan also had immigration papers filed through Maine. His journey began a world away in India, with a seven-hour train ride from Bangalore to Chennai, and then a four-hour wait in line before he even got into the U.S. consulate to get his H1B visa stamped. Mohan worked with Data Concepts in New Jersey, and considered taking a position with Lekha Inc. Lekha began his immigration paperwork through Maine before he was hired, also listing its offices at the Portland Business Center. "A company based in Maine used to get green cards faster,"said Mohan. But the federal labor certification process changed on March 28, 2005. The system since then has been automated, and the role of the states has become vastly diminished. Instead of filing the federal forms initially with the states, companies file directly with the federal government, online. Mohan said the green card labor application Lekha filed for him got put into a massive backlog of U.S. Department of Labor paperwork, and he didn't take the job. "That green card application didn't go anywhere," he said. If he had taken the job, said Mohan, he wouldn't have moved to Maine because his clients were based in New Jersey, where he still lives today. Lekha lists only an Iselin, N.J., office on its Web site. According to state and federal records, Lekha filed labor certification applications for 12 green card positions through Maine, and 18 labor condition applications for H1B visas. "We are trying to set up a bigger office (in Maine), but the market is still on the slower end," said Karan Babhuna, company president. Working in the United States as a computer consultant from India can be difficult, said Mohan. "Being fresh off the boat, you lose money. You don't know anything," said Mohan, speaking generally. "The company that got you here tries to make good money out of you." New immigrants don't have contacts or information to allow them to easily leave and go to another company, he said. And, while here on a visa, the workers can't threaten to just quit the company and look for work, he said, because your visa is linked to your employer. "You're basically bound to the company," said Mohan. "It's not like if you don't pay me I leave and work at Home Depot." STILL IN TOWN Rajesh Kumar, meanwhile, is an example of a worker who did come to Maine. BCC USA Inc. filed for his labor certification through Maine in September 2004. His green card application is still in the works, said Kumar, winding through the federal bureaucracy. Kumar lived and worked in South Portland last year, he said, for about six months. He worked on the company's Web site out of its 650 Main St. offices, and today still works for BCC. He's now based out of the New Jersey area and works for New Jersey and New York clients. BCC Marketing Director Karan Manickam said he personally is still working in the 650 Main St. offices. The property owner confirmed that BCC was still operating there. BCC filed 29 labor certification applications for green cards through Maine, and 15 labor condition applications for H1B visa positions, according to state and federal records. The company opened offices here to take advantage of the quick green card processing times and because it saw a lack of competition for its services. It is based in Massachusetts, Manickam said. The company still hopes to expand in Maine and relocate workers here, he said. Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791-6316 or at: mwickenheiser@pressherald.com