L-1 Employers Should Prepare for Unannounced Site Visits by the USCIS, Says Beth Carlson

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) division announced that their inspection program is expanding to include employers of L-1 intra-company transferees. While the FDNS has conducted thousands of workplace inspections of H-1B employers, the inspections of L-1 employers responds to a report released last summer by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) which found that L-1 new office transfers are susceptible to fraud and abuse, as much of the information in the initial petition is speculative.

Faegre Baker Daniels immigration counsel Beth Carlson was quoted on the Society for Human Resource Management website explaining the rationale behind the added enforcement. "One-year new office petitions tend to be an area with potential for fraud," said Carlson. "USCIS is looking to see if you really have a business plan, and are you really going to go through with your business plan. USCIS considers things such as the number of employees, growth in revenues, attainment of significant clientele, and other elements indicating that the entity has been actively engaged in business activities."