On May 25th I wrote about the Fraud Detection and National Secuirty’s (FDNS) on-site visits by government officials at one’s place of business. This week I attended the American Council on International Personnel’s (ACIP) hill briefing on Why a New World Needs New Policies: Why America Will Lose its Competitive Edge Without Employment-Based Visa and Green Card Reform and one of the panelists spoke about their experience with FDNS site visits, which is similar to other such experiences I have heard. The gist was that FDNS representatives show up and use the same list of questions, visit the same work sites and are sometimes the same FDNS representatives who previously conducted an on-site audit of that employer. Which raises two questions and a comment. First, what is the government doing with this information, and two, why repeat visits to big, household name employers asking the same questions about the company? As an employer you’ll need to experience zen-like moments if repeatedly visited by FDNS representatives since you do need to comply with their requests. Furthermore, clearly it doesn’t mean you are a bad employer necessarily, just that the government feels it must repeatedly visit the same employer, sometimes the same sites and often in the same month.
I’m all for audits, naturally as a compliance lawyer I’m an advocate of internal audits of say your Forms I-9. However, the only time I’m a fan of repetitiveness is if I’m at a slot machine and each time I pull the handle I hear coins clinking on the tray…I say this having experienced one slot machine adventure in the Bahamas during which I lost my $10 roll of quarters in less than 10 minutes and resolved that it was best I never play the slots again. But back to my point, as an employer it’s a shame and you should complain about such FDNS practices if they are occurring. You also need to have a plan in place to deal with such situations, starting with a phone tree if you receive a visit from FDNS representatives and they want to meet one of your H-1B employees regarding their salary or job position as listed on the H-1B petition filed with USCIS.
Some statistics on FDNS provided by USCIS:
There were a total of 23,204 site visits assigned for H-1Bs and religious workers in FY2011:
- 17,307 site visits were completed — 13,484 of those site visits resulted in a verified result and 1,592 were not verified.
- 15,648 of those site visits were H-1Bs — 12,038 were verified and 1,456 were not verified.
- “Not verified” cases go to an adjudicator or end up at a field office for further review.
Over the last eight years, FDNS has expanded from four employees to 800 allocated positions in FY 2012. That’s a big jump which will likely lead to more government audits of employers.