Top US authorities have conducted site visits to investigate potential fraud by employers hiring F-1 foreign students. Such site visits are made by authorities to identify noncompliance, staged worksites, and supervisors lacking knowledge of regulations.
ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations directorate has recently conducted site visits to investigate fraud by employers in Northern Virginia that hire F-1 foreign students.
ICE officials discovered evidence of noncompliance and potential fraud, including evidence of nonfunctional or staged worksites and supervisors who lacked knowledge of laws and regulations related to employing foreign students while visiting local IT services companies.
In one instance, ICE investigated an employer after discovering its reported place of business was a home in the Virginia suburbs that supposedly employs dozens of foreign students via the Optional Practical Training program.
International students in the US are allowed to work in American companies under the Optional Practical Training program, during and after completion of their studies, up to 12 or 24 months.
OPT authorization is a quicker and easier way for foreign students to stay and work in the US after graduation, compared to limited and oversubscribed temporary or permanent employment-based immigration statuses like H-1B and Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) or US Green Card.
International students in the United States with F-1 study visas and foreign workers on H-1B visas should be aware that USCIS has the authority to conduct unannounced site visits under its compliance programs.
Site visits allow ICE to ensure compliance with OPT regulations, which allow foreign students to work in the United States for a period of years. Since its inception, the OPT program has prompted a variety of concerns from Congress, national security officials, watchdog agencies and trade organizations, including fraud and the displacement of American workers by foreign nationals.
Such unannounced site visits are also conducted by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS), which falls under the USCIS’s Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP).
