“Seasonal need” to work from June to December, then another “season” from January to June lol. They would be on a 6on,6 off rotation, staggered with their replacements. I do recall though that there was a huge local hiring spree a few years back, so maybe they got audited.
The problem (for them) is that pay scales (and cost of living) in that area are above average. A friend of my son got a job there about 8 years ago and it paid about 63k plus benefits, whereas the average home depot employee makes about 32k. No idea what it’s like post COVID.
If someone sees visa fraud, it should be reported. There are programs to try to combat it, though this is a "UCIS doesn't have the resources to audit every company."
Ignoring visa fraud is one of the ways that it becomes established and in turn makes it harder for the companies that are following the rules to be successful.
At the time, I really didn’t know it was likely fraud due to the low pay aspect. Interesting though about the 6 on 6off, since it looks like they could stay 3 years?
Perhaps that was so they could keep everyone “in the system” by not allowing them to be established, or something? I’m not really sure, but I think it worked kind of like a temp agency, but I believe the pay checks were issued directly by home depot, so I’m really not sure how everything was organized.
The house had an “agent”/handler that basically they had to obey, even though they worked for HD… it felt really Mob-like, with prohibition on dating, being out late, etc and strict organization of work schedules for room sharing.
But they paid 2x normal rent, all in advance, 6 months at a time and the apartments were always in great shape, so the property owner loved them.
Whatever it was it sure smelled like some kind of trafficking to me but I could never put my finger on the exact issue, and they all seemed genuinely grateful to be there. It did seem super shady though.
The problem (for them) is that pay scales (and cost of living) in that area are above average. A friend of my son got a job there about 8 years ago and it paid about 63k plus benefits, whereas the average home depot employee makes about 32k. No idea what it’s like post COVID.