Neeraj Sharma had, by most appearances, made it. An India-born entrepreneur running a staffing company in New Jersey, he had lived in the United States long enough to become a naturalised citizen, a milestone he reached in December 2017.
What federal authorities allege is that the path to that citizenship was built on a series of deliberate lies.
On June 8, the US Department of Justice announced denaturalisation proceedings against 17 foreign-born Americans. Sharma, 50, is among them.
Who is Neeraj Sharma?
Sharma was the Chief Executive Officer of Magnavision LLC, a New Jersey-based staffing company. Before his citizenship, he had carved out a niche in the business of placing workers, a role that would later become the centre of his legal downfall.
According to the Justice Department, between 2015 and 2017, Sharma submitted 11 fraudulent H-1B visa applications. In each case, he allegedly claimed that the workers would be employed at a major global financial institution, a claim authorities say was false. Sharma himself was employed as a contracted business analyst at the bank, and investigators allege he used that position to fabricate promises of job opportunities there.
The applications, according to the court filing, contained forged executives' signatures and fabricated supporting documents. The fraud, authorities allege, was not incidental; it was systematic.
The citizenship application
In 2017, having lived in the US for the required number of years, Sharma applied for naturalisation. The application required him to answer a series of questions about his conduct and history. According to prosecutors, he answered each critical question falsely.
He declared that he had never committed a crime for which he was not arrested. He stated that he had never provided false or misleading information to US government officials. He also asserted that he had never lied to authorities to obtain immigration benefits.
Based on those declarations, USCIS approved his application. Sharma became an American citizen in December 2017, the same year the alleged fraud concluded.
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The unravelling
Federal authorities now argue that Sharma's citizenship was obtained through material misrepresentations and must be revoked. The denaturalisation action is part of a broader crackdown by the US government targeting naturalised citizens accused of serious misconduct. The group of 17 facing similar proceedings includes individuals accused or convicted of visa fraud, wire fraud, child sexual abuse, and drug-related offences.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was direct about the government's position. "American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here and break our laws and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege," he said.
What denaturalisation means
Denaturalisation is a legal process under the Immigration and Nationality Act through which the US government can revoke the citizenship of a naturalised American. Authorities must establish that citizenship was obtained through unlawful means or that material facts were deliberately concealed during the application. If the proceedings against Sharma succeed, he would lose the citizenship he has held since 2017.
Published on: Jun 10, 2026 12:36 PM IST
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