Thousands of Foreign Students May Have Overstayed Visas Working Shell Companies

"NBC’s efforts to contact officers at 14 suspicious companies were met with a series of dead-end business addresses and disconnected phone numbers. Emails, phone calls, and social media messages went unanswered by all but two companies. In those two instances, an officer reached by phone verified their identity but declined to discuss their company.

Those 14 companies employed more than 5,500 foreign students through the OPT program in 2017, according to ICE records.

Although NBC’s investigation found evidence of possible abuse, those cases represent a small fraction -- less than 3 percent -- of the more than 200,000 students that participated in OPT in 2017."