- Federal agencies are intensifying unannounced compliance checks at home offices to verify H-1B remote work locations.
- Absence during a surprise visit can lead to petition denials or revocations for non-compliant workers.
- A new initiative called Project Firewall shifted oversight from complaint-based to proactive, targeted investigations.
(UNITED STATES) — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Labor Department investigators have intensified unannounced compliance checks that can flag H-1B remote work when a worker is temporarily away from a registered home office, including for ordinary business or personal travel.
The scenario immigration lawyers and employers describe as a “Surprise Visit During Trip” has emerged as a recurring trigger for follow-up scrutiny, because officers can show up at the address listed for remote work and treat an absence as a warning sign that the job is being performed from an unreported location.
Federal officials frame the checks as a way to verify that employers and workers follow the worksite and wage attestations tied to H-1B petitions and Labor Condition Applications, while companies and workers say modern “work-from-anywhere” habits can collide with rigid location expectations.
For H-1B workers, an adverse finding can threaten immigration status if the government concludes the employment terms no longer match what was filed. For employers, it can mean petition problems, added compliance costs, and potential liability if remote arrangements drift from what was certified.
Project Firewall, a joint enforcement initiative involving the U.S. Department of Labor, USCIS and the Department of Justice, shifted H-1B oversight away from a system centered on complaints and toward proactive investigations.
“Launching Project Firewall will help us ensure no employers are abusing H-1B visas at the expense of our workforce. By rooting out fraud and abuse, the Department of Labor and our federal partners will ensure that highly skilled jobs go to Americans first,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Under the initiative, the Labor Department can pursue investigations that begin from “reasonable cause” rather than waiting for a formal complaint, a change that can accelerate verification activity and increase the odds that remote worksites draw attention.
In parallel, USCIS’s H-1B modernization changes expanded the agency’s stated authority to conduct site visits at any location where H-1B work is performed, including private residences used as home offices.
USCIS also warns that participation in site visits is no longer voluntary, and it describes refusal to cooperate—or an inability to verify a worker’s presence at the listed worksite—as grounds for petition denial or revocation.
Those shifts broadened the compliance perimeter beyond traditional employer offices, placing remote workers’ listed addresses within the scope of surprise checks that were once more commonly associated with corporate sites and third-party client locations.
In the “Surprise Visit During Trip” pattern, Fraud Detection and National Security officers arrive unannounced at the home address listed on the worker’s LCA, expecting to confirm basic facts such as where the person performs duties, what those duties are, and how the role is supervised.
If the officer finds the employee is not there—and investigators later determine the person was still working while traveling from another location—the absence can be treated as inconsistent with the reported worksite and flagged as a potential material violation.
Employers and immigration practitioners say that even short trips can become problematic when a home address functions as the registered worksite, because the government may view the physical location as part of the terms it approved.
H-1B rules also tie work location to LCA coverage and, in some circumstances, to whether an amended petition is needed when the worksite changes for more than a limited period, a framework that can clash with informal “work-from-anywhere” arrangements.
In practice, a surprise home-office visit can create a record that triggers follow-up requests for evidence or other action if the government concludes it cannot verify that work is being performed as represented.
The Labor Department has described its Project Firewall enforcement focus as including “offsite placement” and “remote work consistency,” and it has reported that the initiative has launched more than 200 targeted investigations as of early 2026.
Officials and employer-side compliance teams say targeted investigations can begin when information appears inconsistent across filings and operational reality, including when third-party placements or remote arrangements are not reflected consistently in paperwork.
USCIS has also pointed to broader enforcement tools, including authority to hire sworn law-enforcement officers to execute search warrants, adding to employer concerns that verification efforts can take a more investigative posture than earlier compliance reviews.
At the same time, the government has expanded social media vetting for “anti-American” or “antisemitic” activity on public accounts, which employers and workers say adds another layer of scrutiny that can accompany immigration adjudications even when the core issue is worksite compliance.
The policy push has coincided with a new supplemental fee for certain new H-1B petitions for workers from abroad, a six-figure cost that companies say raises the stakes for keeping each case insulated from compliance problems.
Some employers have responded by tightening internal remote-work permissions, limiting travel while on H-1B, or shifting workers back toward fixed-location schedules to reduce the risk that a site visit finds an empty home office during standard working hours.
H-1B holders have also reported increased questioning at ports of entry about their exact remote work address, a line of inquiry that workers and employers say reflects heightened attention to where duties are actually performed and whether that matches what was filed.
When a case draws scrutiny, an employer may receive a Notice of Intent to Revoke, which companies treat as a serious escalation because they must demonstrate continued eligibility and consistency with the terms presented to the government.
Workers can face immediate uncertainty as well, since a petition problem can disrupt employment authorization tied to that petition and complicate travel plans if they cannot clearly document where they work and under what approved conditions.
USCIS has directed the public to updates and announcements through its USCIS Newsroom, while the Labor Department has posted materials connected to the enforcement initiative at its H-1B enforcement page.
Employers and workers are also tracking interpretive guidance in the DHS Policy Manual, looking for further detail on how site visits interact with remote-work arrangements, and how agencies plan to apply the modernized framework as investigations continue.
