Does USCIS give advance notice of a site visit? Despite the expansion of the program to L-1 petitions, the agency is not expected to increase the number of inspections it conducts.ģ. Employers that are frequent H-1B and/or L-1 petitioners stand a greater chance of being selected for site visits.įDNS conducts roughly 15,000 site inspections per year. According to officials, the agency does not rely on fraud indicators or other specific criteria to choose petitions for inspection. USCIS randomly selects immigration petitions for verification and site inspection. How are organizations selected for an FDNS site inspection? How many site inspections are conducted each year?

FDNS officers gather information to build profiles of the types of companies that have records of good faith use of immigration programs and records of immigration compliance, and also to identify factors that could indicate fraud.Ģ. In addition to verifying the validity of data contained in an immigration petition, FDNS officers use information collected during site visits to help USCIS develop a fraud detection database. These cases are assigned to FDNS officers, who visit the premises of sponsoring employers to verify the existence of the employer, the validity of the information the employer has provided in an immigration petition, and whether sponsored foreign nationals are working in compliance with the terms of their admission to the United States. During this time, USCIS randomly selects a large number of petitions or applications for benefits in the particular category being assessed. A BFCA typically lasts for several months. BFCAs are initiatives that review specific immigration programs – such as the H-1B or L-1 program – to determine the incidence of fraud in that particular program. Site visits may also be conducted as part of a Benefits Fraud and Compliance Assessment (BFCA). The goal of ASVVP is verify that the petitioning employer and foreign beneficiary are complying with the terms of the approved nonimmigrant worker petition and, more generally, to raise awareness of compliance obligations among the employer community. The Fraud Detection and National Security unit of USCIS has been making employer site visits for several years under its Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP). Why does USCIS make employer site visits? If your company is contacted by an FDNS officer, call your designated Fragomen professional immediately to discuss options, including the possibility of having counsel present during a site visit.ġ. The following updated Frequently Asked Questions address the latest developments in the site visit program, based on Fragomen’s continuing analysis of FDNS practices.

In recent years, FDNS inspectors have concentrated on H-1B employment, but USCIS has recently expanded the program to include L-1 employers as well. The purpose of site inspections is to verify the information that employers provide in their immigration petitions and make sure that sponsored workers are complying with the terms of their admission. Since 2010, the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) unit has conducted unannounced inspections of the worksites of employers who sponsor foreign workers.

Immigration site visits