Government Site Visits

Since 2010, the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) unit has conducted both announced and unannounced inspections of the worksites. The revenue generated from the $500 anti-fraud fee funds the FDNS unit. The goals of site visits are:

• To verify that the petitioning employer (Emory University) and foreign beneficiary (H-1B employee) are complying with the terms of the approved employment petition.
• To raise awareness of compliance obligations among the employer community.

Important

• These site visits are random and not uncommon.
• These visits can occur in person, by phone, email or fax.
• The site visit officer may visit with the employee, their supervisor, or ISSS. 
• There is no need to indicate that the employee/supervisor has done something wrong.  
• The employee/supervisor does not need to worry as long as the terms and conditions of the previously approved H-1B have not changed – including, but not limited to, the position title, full-time employee status, work location(s), duties, salary (other than annual merit adjustments which is normally less than 5%), position requirements, travel requirements, etc.
• Although not as common as the FDNS site visits, employees and supervisors should follow the same protocol (below) if they are contacted or visited by any government officer for immigration-related reasons. 

Procedures

If an employee or supervisor are notified or visited by an FDNS officer (or any government officer for immigration-related reasons), they must take the following steps:

• Ask the government officer for their government ID and make a copy of it.
• Ask the officer to wait in a conference room or a meeting room.
• Inform the officer that, per Emory’s protocol, the ISSS office (404-727-3300) must be contacted immediately by the employee or supervisor.
• Contact the department's ISSS advisor. 
  • If the department's assigned ISSS advisor is out of the office, another ISSS advisor will come to the worksite for the site visit.
• Wait for the ISSS advisor to arrive before beginning the interview with the officer. The ISSS advisor should be present during the visit.
• The officer will request that the employee/supervisor provide some information/documentation following the visit. 
  • Please contact the department's ISSS advisor about the requested information/documentation.