For the families of possibly more than 400 Indian students in the U.S. it must have seemed like an encore to a nightmare, as they found themselves trapped in yet another university visa scam, even as the echoes of the 2010 Tri-Valley University (TVU) fiasco continue to reverberate through the U.S. higher education system.
This time 450 students in Herguan University of Sunnyvale, California, 94 per cent of them Indian according to some estimates, faced an uncertain future after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a “notice of intent to withdraw” accreditation.
On Thursday, federal agents were said to have raided Herguan and charged its CEO, Jerry Wang, with visa fraud “in a 15-count indictment that could send him to prison for up to 23 years and amount to more than $1 million in fines.” He faces specific charges of submitting false documents, false transfer letters and making false statements to federal regulators.
The San Jose Mercury News quoted a graduate still connected to Herguan, as saying that “the news of the raid came as a shock,” adding that foreign students were told “that in the next 15 days, if something doesn't change, you either have to find a different school or leave the country.”
According to a statement by the ICE, students currently enrolled at Herguan have two choices — either to “continue to attend classes, or continue to work at the job for which they were authorised Optional Practical Training, and maintain their active status in a manner required by regulations, or transfer to another Student and Exchange Visitor Programme-certified institution.”
Without prejudice clause
The option to maintain status under the current regulations would presumably include transfer to another university. However, the ICE guidance to the students took an ominous tone on the time frame for such transfers as it warned that they could not maintain their active status, “they must depart the country without prejudice within seven calendar days.”
The “without prejudice” clause suggests that re-application for a university position after returning to India would be an option too, and their prior enrolment at Herguan would not be a negative factor in the consideration of a second application.
Keywords: Herguan University, U.S. immigration, U.S. visa fraud, Jerry Wang, SEVIS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
People studying in either Trivalley or Hargune university knows their fate before.
Its not completely a ICE fault to track these universities. Why student take
admission in these universities? simple answer is they want to be in USA any how.
They didn't take admission for studying rather just want to keep their status in
USA. They know everything before taking admission in these universities. These
universities doesn't require any document for taking admission. So for an Indian it
always be suspicious if somebody is giving you an admission without anything.
So, my point is that people have to stop false dreaming about America. they have
to rather concentrate in India for their good work. which will benifit people as well
as society. And be aware there are 3-4 more universities in the same area in USA
which will be track down sonly.
Let us be clear that large percentage of students going to USA in such Universities belong to rich families only(black money) who can afford such huge expenses in USA$ in comparison to our INR.To enter USA through travel/university agents by fair or foul means results in such humiliation not only for the family but also for our nation.A strict watch about source of money to be spent on out going student if cleared by Income Tax department might reduce number of such cases.
I would be interested to know how many of the 94% Indian enrollment are from Hyderabad and other part of AP/Telangana/Rayalaseema.
The problem is partly because people want some American degrees, by hook or by crook.
For example, Preston University which now operates from Pakistan though it was expelled from U.S.A. Now Preston sounds more classy than Herguan. Even CEOs (Indian-born) have conned by such claims so young students, naturally ! For example, one Indian CEO (living in Singapore) paid a tidy sum to obtain Preston PhD in "Humanistic Sciences" with much ease. But soon Preston PhD was outed by newspapers. When Preston U "fake PhD" was shown to be from a "degree mill" glamour's bluff was called. What an expensive and worthless piece of paperit produces! Unfortunate but such things seem to happen again and again, our greed being a contributing factor. Caveat emptor is in order!
Let us not jump and blame MEA and Other Indian Agencies for the plight
of the students. Of course the government must ensure that the students
are safely back in India if they could not get in to another University
as per the rules of US Government. Lets us first question the students
and their parents for the single minded obsession to go US at any cost.
If you are irrational in your aspiration you become the easiest target
for any fraudulent scheme of things. These people ignore all the
warnings by various governmental agencies.
The current tragic plight of Indian students undergoing higher studies
at Herguan University will get intensified if they are apprehended by
U.S Immigration and forced to wear radio-anklets as in the case of the
Try-Valley incident. This depicts the failure of MEA and MOIA in
preventing the exploitation of Indian Students becoming "Cash Cows" to
diminutive fake universities in overseas. MEA and MOIA must immediately
act and prevent our students from any torture at the hands of U.S
Immigration even if they have no other go against deportation.
Tri-Valley University and Herguan University of Sunnyvale, California are plain and simple fraud and are not part of the US higher education system. Regular Universities in the United States love to have foreign students who meet the minimum prescribed standards as foreign students pay full fat fees unlike the locals. There is no question of students having been trapped in this case. Like the earlier one they have gone in knowing the full facts. These are not innocents. There is also something seriously wrong in the visa section in India which has handled these cases. There are agents in India who act as facilitators. The so-called students take the risk as they are looking more for ancillary employment while continuing with the student visa. I shall not be surprised if the bulk of the students involved in this case are from Andhra Pradesh. This kind of fraud is embedded in that State.
it is high time for indians who get lured with these american
universities or commit fraud to get visas,to realize the the truth and
start respecting their own country.
Corruption meets corruption. Why are all these Indians flocking to US schools, while India is supposedly is shinning and it is the land of techies? Getting out of India is the only reason why these students are taking admission in this school and other campuses without doing due diligence.
Often the vulnerable prospects are coaxed and cajoled by the recruiting agents, who get a hefty commission from the fraudulent University, which is ultimately collected from the students. We need to identify such agencies and weed them out too.
As Ragahavan points out: The parents have the money(lots of black) and the kids
want to go to US by any means available. Education is not the motive.Good students
have suitable credentials and get admission in good universities and do well. There
should be a restriction in providing passports and foreign exchange to unworthy
students.
Even the most prestigious universities in the west are profit-motivated these days. Due to the crisis in the western world, the Indian students applying for studies abroad should do a double-check beforehand on the claims made by the universities. I urge these students to draw inspiration from the dramatic story of an Indian student who passed through a tragic experience of the false claims made by the Opus Dei's University of Navarra. He had to reveal his entire story on UniversityLeaks website when nothing worked. Thankfully another university in Spain came to his rescue, after he made his story public by uploading many documents online, and admitted him in a related doctorate program.
During those days when no internet in India 1996-98 I have tried for student visa by books on university from US librabries in HYD. After having internet and friends/internet forums, I wonder why Indian students fall in the trap of such so called universities? I guess the students studying here might focus on how to get visa and work rather than focus on MS/MBA was encashing by such institutes heads also. We can not blame anyone as its purely individual call and their parents responsibility in India. Its so tragedy we Indians go any where on the earth to study though we have many colleges/IITs/IIMS in India. Something wrong with students/parents/colleages/lecturers there force these folks to go out of India otherwise its purely their dollar dreams.
@Rama: Well, that test is not really a valid one. There are many State Universities in the US where certain branches (like Computer Science) has 70%+ International students - mostly Indians and Chinese. These are State Funded, top 25 Universities. As somebody in one of the comments mentioned, there is sizeable Indian student community in some of the best Universities in the US. Here though, the students are not innocent, and didn't enroll at the University with the intent of getting higher education. The motive was purely to enter the US. I wonder how all those students got Visas - especially since a lot of students going to Good Universities sometimes get their Visas rejected.
Every year a large numbers of foreign students who are acedemically well-prepared through schooling in their home countries enroll at well-established universities in US along with local students. The foreign students at these estabilshed schools seldom run into Visa problems.
The subject of this news report obviously is referring to an enitrely different set of students. There is a mutual need - students wanting to somehow enter US and the US college making easy money. This is not happening because of lack of information or innocence of the students. I do not think opening more colleges in India will encourage these students to stay put at home. The parents have the money and the kids wnat to go to US by any means available. Education is not the motive.
A very simple test to apply is whehter the class has 50% or more of local fee-paying students. If the answer is no, you can conclude that this is an unscrupulous business and not an educational establishment.
To the uninformed reader, the article may seem to suggest that there
is a cause-effect relationship between Indian students and fraudulent
universities.
Significant Indian student population can be found even in top
universities like MIT, Stanford etc. This has nothing to do with the
university being genuine or not. This has to be made clear to the
readers.
Of course, any student, who applies to any of these universities needs
to take a moment to understand its credentials instead of blindly
jumping into it.
The root cause of all these problems is run-away overpopulation. That makes people fight for
limited resources, jobs, artificial qualifications by fraud, corruption and resort to any means to
achieve these desperate ends....
And then there are people at home and abroad to reap benefit too. This would not be the
last one, but there will be more incidents like this too.
It is high time we start working on institutes in India which can cater
to the growing demands of higher education. To go through experience
such as this is traumatic to everyone involved, especially the parents
There are many private for profit places calling themselves universities. A recent Congressional Investigations has shown they do not educate anyone and providing education is not their primary objective but making profit is. They make profit by defrauding United States Department of Education on student loans. Investigators also found that most of their students does not graduate and are unable to pay the student loans.
The point is buyers beware and there are numerous ways or wetting these places. One is accreditation make sure the are not accredited by North Central Association, beware, it is an agency set up by private universities to accredit themselves as are many other accreditation agencies. You need to visit their web sites and see who are siting on there boards.
They have very bad reputation in the US and most employers does not hire them and many companies will not reimburse tuition coast if their employees took courses from them. Investigate thoroughly before wasting.
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