Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate of UCIS - How to Report Fraud

[2024]

Protecting the integrity of the immigration process is a priority for USCIS. Visit the USCIS Report Fraud page for information on how to report fraud of immigration benefits, such as marriage or asylum fraud, and employment-based visa violations.

 

https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/organization/directorates-and-program-offices/fraud-detection-and-national-security-directorate

 

[MACH]

 

Expansion of Site Visits

Since 2009, we have conducted random administrative site visits to ensure that employers and foreign workers are complying with requirements of the H-1B nonimmigrant classification. We verify H-1B workers’ wages, job duties, and work locations during site visits. This action is not meant to target nonimmigrant employees for any kind of criminal or administrative action but rather to identify employers who are abusing the system. 

We seek to determine if workers are not being paid while in the United States as they wait for projects or work, a practice known as “benching” which violates U.S. immigration laws. We also conduct site visits in cases where there are suspicions of fraud or abuse and refer many of the cases to our counterparts at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for further investigation. 

Starting this month, we will take a more targeted approach focusing on:

• H-1B-dependent employers (those who have a high ratio of H-1B workers as compared to U.S. workers, as defined by statute);
• Cases where we cannot validate the employer’s basic business information through commercially available data; and
• Employers petitioning for H-1B workers who work off-site at another company or organization’s location.