FDNS Site Visits & DOL Audits
An unannounced FDNS officer in your lobby, or a Wage and Hour Division letter in the mail, is not a routine inconvenience — it is the government testing whether your petitions match your reality. The employers who do well are the ones who prepared before the knock.
Do You Qualify for a Strong Defense Posture?
Enforcement comes through several doors. Each has its own rules, and each is survivable with the right preparation.
USCIS’s Fraud Detection and National Security officers appear unannounced at H-1B, L-1 and other worksites to verify the beneficiary, the job, the wage and the workspace against the petition — including at third-party client sites.
WHD investigates LCA compliance — wage payment, benching, working conditions and notice obligations — typically triggered by a complaint, and armed with back-pay, civil money penalty and debarment authority.
Every H-1B employer must maintain complete public access files and payroll records. Most audit damage is done not by the underlying facts but by files that were never built.
Adverse FDNS findings surface later as Notices of Intent to Revoke and heightened scrutiny of future filings. The site visit is rarely the end of the story — it is the beginning of a record.
What We Audit Before the Government Does
Our compliance review reproduces the government’s checklist — against your actual records.
How Our Firm Builds a FDNS & DOL Audits Case
Our firm has defended employers in FDNS investigations and DOL audits for years — and prepares clients so the visit confirms compliance instead of discovering problems.
Prepare the site before the visit
We train reception and managers on the protocol: verify credentials, notify counsel, provide accurate answers, never guess. A prepared five-minute visit ends well; an improvised one generates findings.
Fix the paper first
Wage levels, public access files, amendments for relocated workers — we remediate the classic exposure points during a privileged internal review, before any investigator sees them.
Manage the follow-up in writing
After a visit or audit, the record you submit is the record that decides. We handle every statement, document production and response to a Statement of Findings as the litigation documents they are.
Common FDNS & DOL Audits Problems We See
Understanding where cases go wrong is the first step in preparing one that doesn’t.
The visit at the client site
FDNS officers appear at end-client locations where no one knows the H-1B worker’s petition details. Without preparation, innocent confusion reads as fraud.
Benching liability
Nonproductive time is still payable time under the LCA rules. WHD back-pay assessments for benching — plus penalties — are the most expensive recurring finding in the consulting industry.
Duties and location drift
Workers whose actual projects, worksites or duties have drifted from the petition create material-change exposure. Amendment discipline is the vaccine.
The findings that follow you
A bad site visit produces NOIRs on approved petitions and RFEs on future ones. Employers rarely connect the pattern until we show them the file.
FDNS & DOL Audits Process & Timeline
Whether you call us before enforcement or after it has begun, the work follows a defined sequence.
We review your LCA, public access, payroll and amendment posture under attorney-client privilege and quantify the real exposure.
Files are completed, wages corrected where required, amendments filed — the fixable problems get fixed on your timeline, not the government’s.
Front-desk protocols, manager briefings and a response plan are put in place at your offices and, where possible, coordinated with end clients.
When a visit occurs or an audit letter arrives, we manage every interaction: document productions, employee interviews, written statements.
We respond to Statements of Findings, contest penalty assessments and negotiate resolutions — with debarment prevention as the first priority.
We answer the NOIRs and RFEs that follow enforcement, and rebuild the compliance program so the next visit is uneventful.
FDNS & DOL Audits Frequently Asked Questions
Do we have to let the FDNS officer in?
Site visits are technically voluntary, but refusing cooperation invites denial or revocation of the petitions being verified. The right posture is cooperative, accurate and disciplined — with counsel notified immediately and follow-up handled in writing.
What does the FDNS officer actually check?
Whether the company exists as described, whether the beneficiary works there, and whether the job, wage and location match the petition. Officers speak with reception, the manager and often the beneficiary, and may photograph the workspace.
What triggers a DOL Wage and Hour investigation?
Most commonly a complaint — from a current or former worker — though WHD also acts on referrals and its own initiative. Investigations examine wage payment, benching, notice posting and the public access file, typically across the whole H-1B population, not one worker.
What are the penalties if violations are found?
Back wages to affected workers, civil money penalties scaled to the violation, and in willful or repeat cases debarment from the H-1B and PERM programs — which for a staffing or consulting business is existential. Early counsel changes outcomes.
Our H-1B worker moved to a new client site. Is that a problem?
It can be. A move outside the area of intended employment generally requires a new LCA and an amended petition before the move. Unamended relocations are among the most common findings in both FDNS visits and WHD audits.
Can you prepare us before anything happens?
That is the best time to call. A privileged compliance review plus site-visit protocols costs a fraction of one back-pay assessment — and converts the eventual visit from a threat into a formality.
Immigration Experience Since 1999
This firm’s enforcement-defense practice grew out of decades representing the employers the government scrutinizes most.
The Law Offices of Keshab Raj Seadie, P.C. has practiced U.S. immigration law exclusively since 1999.
FDNS investigations, H-1B and LCA audits by the Wage and Hour Division, public access remediation and NOIR responses handled for employers from startups to high-volume consulting firms.
Extensive experience responding to RFEs, NOIDs, denials, audits and government challenges in this category.
We consider how today’s filing affects your future extensions, employment changes and permanent residence.
Check Your FDNS & DOL Audits Eligibility
Tell us about your situation. Our team can review the information you provide and identify whether FDNS & DOL Audits — or an alternative strategy — may warrant further evaluation.