Remedies for Duped Students: The Legacy of OPT Scam Companies AzTech, Integra, Wireclass, Andwill, Findream, Tellon Trading, Arecy, Sinocontech, Masswell, CB Max Design, Global IT Experts, Apex IT, and XCG Design
Posted on January 6, 2025
It is like a game of whack-a-mole: one OPT scam company is closed and another one opens; one is shut down, another one commences operations. By now foreign students should be aware of the existence of these scam companies, and those who have been victimized should understand that there may be a remedy.
As background, the roll call of companies implicated in the OPT scandal include AzTech, Integra, Wireclass, Andwill, Findream, Tellon Trading, Arecy, Sinocontech, Masswell, CG Max Design, Global IT Experts, Apex IT, and XCG Design. Our Freedom of Information Act request turned up more than 190 pages of US government information on AzTech alone, with nearly 2,000 foreign students from more than 20 countries and 70 universities associated with it alone. These scam companies generally followed the same template: they pretended to be real OPT employers, targeting foreign students who need to meet employment requirements. In exchange for fees paid in advance, these companies claimed to offer “OPT compliance:” “training,” “job placement,” and documentation confirming “employment.”
Students associated with any of these companies are experiencing devastating visa and immigration problems or will experience such problems in the future – no matter how long ago that association was. They are having their F-1 student status terminated; accumulating unlawful presence, which can lead to a 3- or 10-year bar to entry to the United States; rendered permanently inadmissible for committing a willful, material misrepresentation; receiving denials of change or extension of status requests from USCIS; being stopped by CBP at airports, having their visas cancelled, and returned to their home countries; and for those in the US, they remain at risk of deportation. We continue to get phone calls from individuals who thought they were in the clear, only to be stranded abroad when they apply for new visitor, student, or immigrant visas and are hit with permanent bars under Section 212(a)(6)(C)(i).
For foreign students in the United States currently considering an OPT employer, there are many telltale signals of a bogus OPT employer, for example, if the job is unpaid; the employer is charging you money for placement services, training, or employment verification letters; there is no in-person contact or all the so-called training sessions are conducted online; there is no public domain information (e.g., USCIS website, Reddit posts, lawyer blogs) about the company or the public domain information is negative; or there is no company website.
The good news is that there seems to be some US government recognition that the blanket, uniform determinations of inadmissibility for ALL students associated with the OPT scam companies were wrong. Every case was and is indeed different. There have been successful TRIP appeals; positive responses to Requests for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny for I-485, I-765, I-129, and I-140 applications and petitions; and at least one lawsuit which successfully challenged the government’s position. We have successfully handled many of these cases.
If you have been a victim of one of these OPT companies, please feel free to reach out to discuss your situation.