This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Two Virginia brands Mahandru Associates and its sister Startup Business Bureau sell a simple promise: set up a U.S. company, move a "manager" here on an L1 visa and figure out the rest later.
Their own pages show the sales engine behind it: referral commissions, markups allowed for middlemen, cash accepted at the office and a large trail of short-life LLCs registered at the same handful of addresses. This business model shows how easy it is to profit from selling access to live and profit in the U.S.
What they're selling, a visa wrapped in a starter company
Startup Business Bureau markets the L-1 visa as a way for executives and managers to transfer to the U.S. or open a new U.S. office. Their page lists friendly talking points: live and work in the U.S., premium processing available, dependents can come and there is a path to a green card. Mahandru hosts a brochure and an investment migration page that reads like a one stop shop, complete with a portfolio of house brands under the same umbrella.
The money path: Commissions, markups and cash at the counter
Mahandru Associates' Introducer Agreement is a marketing-and-commission contract built to sell immigration programs, specifically "Residency & Citizenship by Investment" and other business/personal migration packages, to paying clients.
The Introducer is a third-party referrer/marketer, not the law firm, whose job is to bring Mahandru paying prospects for immigration programs. The "leads" they supply are people with the money and interest to pursue Mahandru's programs, namely residency or citizenship by investment and other business/personal residency/visa packages the company sells. The introducer "registers" those prospects with Mahandru (usually by email) and gets commission when the person signs up and again if the application is completed. They're paid twice: an Introducer Fee when the client signs up and a Success Fee when the application is completed and the company is paid. The eye-catcher is a "White Label Pricing" clause that lets the introducer rebrand the offering under their own name and mark up the price ("top it up") for extra margin, meaning the person pitching the visa can hide the true provider and costs while keeping the spread.
This model bakes in conflicted incentives to push people into visa pathways whether or not they're good candidates, because commissions are triggered at sign-up, not at a successful immigration outcome. The agreement's broad confidentiality and IP language (covering client lists, applications and documents) reads like a lead-harvesting scheme, while the white-label feature can mask who's actually advising you, potentially a non-lawyer salesperson, while quietly adding markups the client never sees. In plain English, it's a pay-to-refer, upsell and rebrand system for investment-migration/visa products that can obscure pricing, blur accountability and encourage aggressive, high-pressure selling to would-be immigrants.
Both Mahandru Associates and Startup Business Bureau advertise a wide menu of payment options: they publicly list full bank account/routing numbers; they accept cash in person; they route payments via WhatsApp/email "invoices"; they steer people to bank transfers and P2P apps (Zelle/PayPal/Venmo/Cash App) and even a Gmail address, methods with weak chargeback protections; they require payments be "NET" of all bank/transfer fees and add card surcharges, nudging customers away from safer cards; and they disclaim responsibility for any payments made to "representatives," which invites side-door collections. Combined with their white-label setup, this money flow can obscure who is actually getting paid, reduce recourse for victims and make disputes or clawbacks much harder.
The support system:A formation mill behind the scenes
Public records provided show Mahandru Associates LLC acting as registered agent for dozens of LLCs clustered at a few repeat addresses. Many of these companies are short lived and many share the same mail-type addresses. That pattern looks like bulk entity formation, which pairs neatly with a "new office" visa package.
Why the loophole is so easy to sell
The L-1 "new office" rule allows a foreign company with no U.S. presence to transfer a manager here to start one. If the company shows a real relationship abroad, a leased space and a plan to grow, USCIS can approve a one-year starter. There is no annual cap and no required wage floor. At the one-year mark the company must prove the role is truly executive or managerial, not just a founder doing everything. That is where many paper offices fail. It is also where the seller has already been paid.
What Congress and auditors already warned
This is not a brand new problem. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General flagged L-1 vulnerabilities as far back as 2006, including weak checks on new offices and fuzzy "specialized knowledge" claims. Members of Congress have repeatedly voiced concerns over the potential for fraud and abuse in the L-1 program.
What the trend says
Data Source: U.S.Department of State
After FY2021, L-1 and L-2 applications surged. L-1 total applications jumped from 26,406 (FY2021) to 75,157 (FY2022) (≈+185%), peaked at 79,278 (FY2023) (≈+200%) and remained high at 74,713 (FY2024) (≈+183% over 2021). L-2 dependents followed the same arc: 31,651 → 80,366 → 85,222 → 75,248 (≈+138%–169% above 2021). The data strongly suggests that the business model is working and widespread.
Bottom line
Ultimately, the "new office" L-1 hustle turns visas into a product and the American dream into someone else's commission. When immigration is sold through white-label resellers, WhatsApp invoices and hidden markups, safeguards fail workers, families and honest businesses. Americans deserve simple, fair fixes: documented U.S. operations before approval, public disclosure of advisers and financial interests, strict firewalls between commission-driven sales and legal decisions and clean, traceable payments. Citizens and policymakers can press agencies to investigate, report deceptive pitches to the DOJ IER, DOL and USCIS and restrict government contracts for firms that game the system. The nation should reward real investment and real jobs not shell offices, middlemen and quick-flip visas.
