CBS News quotes Loren Locke about EB-1A applicants using fraudulent credentials

"Having an attorney or career coach help you apply to legitimate opportunities that can raise an applicants' profile is not wrong," immigration attorney Loren Locke said. "That line between what's appropriate like profile building, what's fair-game versus what's shady, it can be difficult to spot."

A yearslong backlog meets a USCIS crackdown

Federal law sets annual limits for each visa category. In FY 2025, the cap was 140,000 employment-based visas, including EB-1A, with no more than 7% going to nationals of one single country, regardless of its population.

That can create huge backlogs, particularly for applicants from India and China, where demand for U.S. employment-based visas is high. Many of the services and advertisements CBS News reviewed appeared to target Indian nationals, who have to wait years to receive certain visas.

The EB-1 visa, of which EB-1A is a subcategory, is less backlogged than the EB-2 visa, which is reserved for those with "exceptional ability," but does not require the same level of acclaim as the EB-1A. 

That's helped make EB-1A — and the marketplace of services around it — more popular.

"They've been put in a situation just that's super untenable, which increases desperation, which increases risk taking." Locke said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/high-achiever-eb-1a-visas-scientific-research-awards/