This is to inform you that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is conducting unannounced visits to the work place of a number of employers that sponsor H1B employees. The purpose of these visits is to verify that a legitimate H1B employment opportunity exists, the validity of the information that LUC has provided in the immigration petitions, and whether the sponsored international employee is working in compliance with the terms of his/her status in the U.S.  If your department is subject to one of these visits, the officer will likely ask to speak with the OIP departmental contact person (Mary Theis, 773-508-3899) and/or the international employee at the employee’s place of employment on campus.

The officer may ask questions regarding the number of H1B employees within the department, the job title and responsibilities of the employee, and the employee’s education, previous employment, salary, residence and family members in the U.S.  The officer may also want to view the employer’s premises and/or see the employee’s work area.  The officer may want to take pictures.  Site visits may pertain to immigration petitions that are pending or to those that have already been approved.

The following are some recommendations in preparing for a potential USCIS site visit.

• USCIS’s Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) officers are typically employees of USCIS or employees of private investigation firms that have contracted with USCIS to conduct site visits.  When an FDNS officer visits your department, you should ask to see his/her identification and business card.
• Please be advised that FDNS officers will not typically reschedule a site visit.
• Please contact OIP (Mary Theis, 773-508-3899, mtheis@luc.edu)  if you are contacted for a site visit. OIP advisors will be available for consultation if necessary while the officer is on site.
• You are strongly urged to cooperate with FDNS officers and respond truthfully to their reasonable questions and requests for information.  Failure to cooperate fully could jeopardize a pending immigration petition or compromise the University’s likelihood of success in future filings.
• If you do not know the exact answer to a question without reviewing the records or require the assistance of OIP to obtain the data, let the officer know.  If he/she asks for exact answers, you can request a reasonable amount of time to gather the information sought.
• Your departmental payroll clerk may be requested to confirm salary or provide payroll record information.  You may want to review this now with all the H-1 employees in your department.  If you need any clarification or information about the of H-1 employees/petition in your department, feel free to contact OIP.
• Please share this information with the H1B employees within your department.  These visits are random and the individual H-1B employee should not be worried.

If you have any questions or concerns about compliance during a site visit, please do not hesitate to contact OIP.  Mary Theis, 773-508-3899, mtheis@luc.edu