Indian student being deported for fooling ICE, State Department

Aryan Anand becomes a social media sensation after admitting he faked father’s death, fabricated high school records to get student visa

A student from India is being deported after admitting to scamming the State and Homeland Security departments and a major US university into helping him obtain a visa and a full ride to a college education.

The case of Aryan Anand has become a social media sensation and an embarrassing black eye for the government, the Washington Times reported.

In a lengthy write-up on Reddit, he explains how he created a bogus website and email address for his high school that would ensure he would be the one submitting the fake records and answering any questions about them.

He fabricated a death certificate for his father, who is alive, to obtain a full scholarship, and he bamboozled the State Department into clearing him for the student visa. He settled in at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where he applied for an internship and was hired, even though he was not authorized to work in the US.

He then blew the whistle on himself in his confessional post on Reddit. Another user saw it and forwarded it to investigators. He is now unraveling those lies.

On June 12, he pleaded guilty to forgery in exchange for other charges being dropped. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him and put him before an immigration judge, who ordered him deported.

Anand, 18, characterized his scam as an escape from his life in India, where he was an unmotivated student. His high school grades dropped as he spent time watching horror movies.

He figured he would never get into a college in India with his record, so he began looking abroad. He gravitated to US schools with generous need-based aid packages.

In his Reddit post, he said he faked his school records and email address, used ChatGPT to write his college essays and applied to schools across the US that promised to meet a student’s financial needs.

Lehigh offered him a “very good” package of tuition and nearly full board — everything but meals. He said his father could have afforded that cost but he would “have to listen to everything he tells me.”

His solution, he wrote, was to craft a fake death certificate, arguing that his mother couldn’t afford anything and hoping the school would pay more. The school promised to cover tuition, housing, meals and even one round-trip flight.

He said he was nervous about the student visa process, but he had no reason to be.

“They first asked why this university and all. I said something unique about the uni and then said they also gave me a full ride, which means full scholarship. As soon as she saw that on my I20 (it’s a doc for the visa), she said, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ smiled and said congrats, and said, ‘You must be very smart’ … and instantly typed something on the computer and said your visa is approved,” he recounted.

Anand arrived as a freshman last summer as a computer science major. He said he was still unmotivated and cheated on his exams. He wanted a job to earn money but knew that was illegal for a student visa holder. He applied for an internship, fabricated his resume and college records, and got a part-time remote job earning $1,500 monthly.

ICE, according to the Times, said he was not authorized to work, which was another violation of his visa terms. ICE described the case as a victory.

The State Department, in response to an inquiry from The Washington Times about his description of the student visa interview, defended its process but said the interviewer must use the information that the student and the school provide.

“Visa applicants are continuously screened, both at the time of their application and afterward, to ensure they remain eligible to travel to the United States,” the department said.