New Delhi - The United States consulate general in the southern Indian city of Chennai has announced a lifetime ban on travel to the US for 200 people, including actors and directors in the film industry, who helped people acquire US visas through illegal means, news reports said Thursday. The ban was announced Wednesday after the consulate's fraud prevention unit uncovered a racket in which actors or directors in the south Indian film industry "used their positions to lend credibility to a second unqualified applicant (for a visa)," PTI news agency reported.
A small time actress and two others were arrested by the police on Monday on charges of submitting fake documents to obtain a US visa uncovering the scam in which several persons had similarly paid actors and directors to travel to the US as their assistants though they were not associated with the film industry.
The 200 people found to have taken such assistants had been banned from travelling to the US and the business visa issued to both have been revoked, David T Hopper US consul general for South India, was quoted as saying.
"We have also informed US law enforcing officials and US Immigration authorities about travellers who had entered the country," he said.
He did not rule out action against them in the US including deportation.
Immigration records showed that most of the people who got visas through the racket "are illegally present in the United States," a consulate statement said.
The scheme of a person trying to fly to the US in the garb of a film personality's associate, assistant or acquaintance was first detected in May 2007, Hopper said.
He said such persons sometimes paid up to 500,000 rupees (about 12,368 dollars) to agents who allegedly forged documents to support the visa applications.
He said they visited the US for a variety of purposes. "I would rather speculate that they go there to study or work as temporary workers," he said.
Declining to give details or names of the 200 persons, citing US legal obligations, Hopper said the capacity of the consulate to detect such fraud was being enhanced.
