A viral video circulating on X made an explosive claim that a single immigration lawyer in Texas has approved hundreds of thousands of H-1B visas, which again angered MAGA base into calling for the suspension of the programme.
The video focuses on Dallas-based attorney Chand Parvathaneni and alleges large-scale visa fraud tied to IT “shell companies”.The central claim is misleading.The video says Parvathaneni has “approved” 700,000 H-1B applicants since 2020. In reality, immigration lawyers do not approve visas. H-1B petitions are approved or rejected by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) not by attorneys. Lawyers only prepare and submit applications on behalf of employers.
Public data from H-1B tracking websites such as MyVisaJobs shows that Parvathaneni has been associated with more than 20,000 Labour Condition Applications since around 2020. This is a high number for one attorney, but it can also be the staff’s specialisation in employment-based immigration, particularly filings for IT consulting and staffing firms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.The video also shows public records showing multiple IT companies listing the same residential addresses in suburbs such as Irving, Frisco and Plano.
It points to examples where dozens of H-1B workers were tied to a single house or apartment and claims a “99% suspicion rate”, with more than 3,000 allegedly fake or shared addresses.However, these figures are not official findings. No government agency has labelled these filings fraudulent or assigned a suspicion score. The numbers appear to come from user-led analysis of public data rather than from the Department of Labour or USCIS.Shared or residential addresses can raise red flags but they are not automatically illegal. Small consulting firms, remote operations or early-stage companies may legally operate from residential locations. Allegations of “shell companies”, benching or fake jobs require formal investigation and proof.There is also no evidence that Parvathaneni faces criminal charges, bar discipline or sanctions. Searches of Texas Bar records, federal court filings and USCIS or Department of Justice announcements show no action against him as of January 2026.
He remains a licensed attorney and has publicly spoken about compliance and fraud prevention.That said, concerns about abuse in the H-1B system are still a popular narrative under Trump’s second administration. Federal indictments in Texas in May and June 2025 exposed real visa fraud schemes involving fake jobs and forged documents, with USCIS assisting in those investigations. But those cases involved different individuals and firms and have no confirmed link to Parvathaneni.USCIS has since increased site visits, audits and lottery reforms to curb abuse nationwide.
