10/12/2026
Fake degrees, H-1B claims and credential verification: What employers should know.
India’s fake-degree investigations deserve attention from recruiters, staffing firms and hiring managers. We also need to operate on facts, not suppositions or hyperbole.
Two separate cases are circulating in the H-1B visa debate:
• Kerala Police investigation, December 2025: Police seized more than 100,000 counterfeit university certificates from a printing operation in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. ThePrint reported on January 9, 2026 that customers sought overseas education and employment in multiple countries.
• Manav Bharti University investigation, reported in 2021: Investigators identified approximately 36,000 fake degrees in records examined during a separate university scandal in Himachal Pradesh, according to The Tribune’s January 31, 2021 report.
Those figures describe different investigations. Neither report establishes how many U.S. H-1B visas were obtained using those documents. Combining the numbers into one “H-1B empire bust” overstates what these sources establish.
For employers, credential fraud raises a practical question: How thoroughly are we verifying the qualifications behind the resume?
Education verification, employment history checks and job-relevant skills assessments belong in a sound hiring process. Apply consistent standards to every candidate, wherever they earned their credentials.
Honest candidates invest years earning qualifications. Employers invest money and trust in hiring them. Both deserve a process that takes credential verification seriously.
When a degree is required for your role, who actually confirms it was earned?
