Immigration Compliance Checklist for Companies with 100+ Foreign Nationals

Business immigration compliance for U.S. employers has never carried higher stakes. Secondary reporting indicates ICE worksite audits surged to approximately ten times their FY 2024 rate during the first half of 2025, and the Department of Labor launched "Project Firewall," its most aggressive H-1B enforcement initiative to date. For companies managing 100 or more foreign national employees across visa categories like H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, and E-3, compliance failures now carry significant financial and operational risk. This checklist covers the obligations employers and their HR teams need to track in 2026, from I-9 verification to USCIS site visits, with current penalty figures and actionable steps to stay audit-ready.

I-9 Compliance: The Foundation of Every Employer's Obligation

Every U.S. employer must complete Form I-9 for each person hired, regardless of visa status or citizenship. The current edition (01/20/25, expiring 05/31/2027) introduced terminology changes, reverting "noncitizen authorized to work" to "alien authorized to work" in Section 1 to align with INA statutory language. The prior 08/01/23 edition with a printed expiration of 05/31/2027 remains valid through that date; however, employers using the 08/01/23 edition bearing a 07/31/2026 expiration must update their electronic I-9 systems to reflect the 05/31/2027 expiration date by July 31, 2026.

What the Current Enforcement Landscape Means for Employers

The enforcement transformation is dramatic. In FY 2024, ICE issued an estimated 230 Notices of Inspection based on secondary reporting. By mid-2025, multiple credible sources reported that ICE had dramatically scaled up NOI issuance in a multi-phase nationwide operation, with estimates suggesting approximately a tenfold increase over FY 2024 volumes. Official aggregate figures have not been published by ICE. Over the first seven months of 2025, compiled reports indicate ICE conducted at least 40 worksite enforcement actions resulting in more than 1,100 arrests. The ICE-IRS Memorandum of Understanding signed April 7, 2025 allows Homeland Security Investigations to submit individual names and addresses for IRS identity and address verification under 26 U.S.C. § 6103(i)(2). Employer data, W-2 records, and payroll information are expressly excluded from the agreement's scope. The MOU's legality has since been challenged in federal litigation.

Current I-9 civil penalties (adjusted January 2, 2025):

• Substantive or uncorrected technical violations: $288 to $2,861 per form
• Knowingly hiring unauthorized workers (first offense): $716 to $5,724
• Second offense: $5,724 to $14,308
• Third and subsequent offenses: $8,586 to $28,619
• Criminal penalties (pattern or practice): Fines up to $3,000 per worker plus up to six months' imprisonment per 8 U.S.C. § 1324a(f)(1)

For a company with 100+ foreign nationals, even routine paperwork errors can compound into six-figure fines. Industry practitioners widely report that the majority of paper I-9 forms contain at least one error, though no formal study has quantified the precise rate.

I-9 Self-Audit Checklist

USCIS recommends employers conduct regular self-audits. An internal audit typically verifies that every current employee has a completed I-9 on file using a valid form edition, Section 1 was completed on or before the first day of employment, Section 2 was completed within three business days of the hire date, all required fields are filled (no blanks in signatures, dates, or document information), reverification was completed before expiring work authorization lapsed, and forms are retained for the correct period: three years from hire date or one year after termination, whichever is later.

Alma helps employers track visa expirations and compliance deadlines through its platform. Compliance tracking, employee communication, and case management are included in every Alma engagement.

Storage best practice: USCIS guidance recommends storing I-9 forms separately from general personnel records. This limits the scope of government access if ICE requests inspection of I-9 files. If an employer retains copies of identity documents, doing so for all employees helps avoid discrimination claims.

E-Verify: State Mandates and Federal Contractor Requirements

E-Verify is a DHS program that compares Form I-9 information against government databases. While not federally mandatory for all employers, numerous states and federal contracting requirements make it obligatory for large employers.

Which States Require E-Verify?

Four states mandate E-Verify for all or most private employers: Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Five additional states impose employee-count thresholds for general private-employer mandates: Florida (25+ employees), Georgia (11+), North Carolina (25+), Tennessee (35+), and Utah (150+). Virginia requires E-Verify for employers with more than 50 employees entering state contracts exceeding $50,000. At least 14 states require E-Verify exclusively for public employers or state contractors. New for 2026: Ohio's E-Verify Workforce Integrity Act (effective March 19, 2026) requires all nonresidential construction contractors to use E-Verify. For third and subsequent offenses involving continued employment after a Final Nonconfirmation, fines reach up to $25,000 per violation; penalties for failure to create E-Verify cases are lower.

Federal contractor obligations under FAR clause 52.222-54 apply to contracts valued at $150,000+ with performance periods of 120+ days. Contractors must enroll within 30 calendar days of award, verify new hires within 3 business days of start date, and verify employees assigned to the contract. The clause must flow down to subcontracts exceeding $3,500 for U.S.-based services or construction.

E-Verify+ (pilot): USCIS continues rolling out E-Verify+ (formerly E-Verify NextGen), which integrates I-9 completion directly into E-Verify. As of late 2024, at least 278 employers were enrolled. The system allows employee self-service for I-9 completion, though it does not yet replace the Form I-9 requirement and is not available to federal contractors.

LCA Compliance and Public Access File Obligations

Every employer sponsoring H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 workers must file a Labor Condition Application with the Department of Labor and maintain a Public Access File for each certified LCA.

What Must Be in the Public Access File

The PAF must be created within one working day of filing the LCA and maintained at the employer's principal U.S. place of business or the place of employment. Required contents include the certified LCA (Form ETA 9035/9035E), documentation of the actual wage paid, an explanation of the actual wage system, prevailing wage documentation, copies of notice postings with dates and locations, a summary of benefits offered to U.S. workers in the same occupational classification, and (for H-1B-dependent employers) a list of exempt workers and a recruitment summary.

PAF retention: Documents must be kept for one year beyond the last date any worker was employed under the LCA, or one year from the LCA's expiration or withdrawal, whichever is later. Payroll records must be retained for three years from creation. (20 CFR § 655.760)

LCA Posting Requirements

Employers must post LCA notices in two conspicuous locations at each place of employment for 10 consecutive days, beginning on or within 30 days before the LCA filing date. Electronic posting via intranet or company-wide email is acceptable per DOL guidance. For remote workers, this means posting at both the headquarters and the remote work location's metropolitan statistical area if a new LCA is required.

DOL's Project Firewall: What It Means for Employers

Project Firewall, launched September 19, 2025, is the most ambitious H-1B enforcement program in DOL history. As of November 2025, DOL reported at least 175 open investigations and had assessed $15 million in back wages. The initiative targets wage underpayment, fictitious worksites, failure to report terminations, and "benching" (withholding pay during non-productive periods).

Current LCA penalty ranges (adjusted January 2025, per 20 CFR § 655.810):

• Category (b)(1) violations (strike/lockout violations, substantial failures on notification/specificity/recruitment, misrepresentation, PAF access failures): Up to $2,364 per violation plus at least a one-year petition filing bar
• Category (b)(2) violations (willful failures regarding wages, working conditions, displacement, or recruitment): Up to $9,624 per violation plus at least a two-year filing bar
• Category (b)(3) violations (willful violation combined with displacement of a U.S. worker within 90 days before or after the H-1B petition filing): Up to $67,367 per violation plus at least a three-year debarment from filing H-1B and immigrant petitions
• All violations can trigger full back-wage liability

Alma's attorneys help employers set up and maintain compliant Public Access Files as part of every H-1B engagement. PAF creation, LCA posting documentation, and wage compliance reviews are built into Alma's platform.

H-1B Dependent Employer Rules

Employers with a high ratio of H-1B workers to total workforce are classified as "H-1B dependent" and face additional compliance obligations. Per DOL Fact Sheet #62C, the thresholds are: employers with 1 to 25 full-time equivalent employees become dependent at 8+ H-1B workers; those with 26 to 50 FTEs at 13+; and those with 51+ FTEs when 15% or more of the workforce holds H-1B status.

H-1B-dependent employers must make two additional LCA attestations for non-exempt workers: a non-displacement attestation (no displacement of similarly employed U.S. workers within 90 days before or after the H-1B filing date) and a good faith recruitment attestation (demonstrating U.S. worker recruitment using industry-standard methods before filing). Workers earning $60,000+ annually or holding a master's degree or higher in a related specialty are "exempt" from triggering these additional obligations, though they still count toward the dependency headcount. Employers must reassess dependency status each time they file a new LCA.

USCIS FDNS Site Visits: Mandatory Cooperation Required

USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate conducts unannounced compliance visits for H-1B, L-1, R-1, and EB-5 petitions. Over 100,000 compliance reviews had been completed as of 2019, per a USCIS FDNS presentation; the actual number by 2026 is likely significantly higher.

What Changed in 2025

The H-1B Modernization Rule effective January 17, 2025 now explicitly mandates employer cooperation with site visits. Prior to this rule, cooperation was not codified as a regulatory requirement. Under the new regulation (8 CFR 214.2(h)(4)(i)(B)(2)), refusal to cooperate can result in petition denial or revocation. FDNS officers can inspect any location where the H-1B employee works, has worked, or will work, including third-party worksites and remote home offices.

How to Prepare

A typical site visit lasts approximately one hour. Officers verify the business exists at the claimed location, photograph the worksite, interview HR staff and the beneficiary separately, and review documents including pay stubs, W-2s, organizational charts, and the Public Access File. Questions cover the employee's actual duties, supervision structure, salary, and work location.

Site visit preparation checklist: Designating a knowledgeable HR point of contact at each office location, maintaining copies of all active petitions and PAFs in readily accessible locations, briefing foreign national employees on what to expect, notifying third-party client sites about the possibility of visits, keeping immigration counsel available by phone, and training front-desk staff to verify FDNS credentials and immediately contact the designated representative are all standard preparation practices.

Export Control Compliance for Employers with Controlled Technology

When foreign national employees access controlled technology, employers face "deemed export" obligations under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR, administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR, administered by the State Department). A deemed export occurs when controlled technology is released to a foreign national in the United States; the release is treated as an export to that person's country of citizenship.

Employers must classify controlled technology, determine whether a license is required based on the employee's country of citizenship, and implement Technology Control Plans with physical security, IT access controls, and personnel screening. Since February 2011, employers filing Form I-129 for H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, and O-1A classifications must certify they have reviewed export control regulations and will not release controlled technology without proper authorization. Penalties reach up to $1 million and 20 years' imprisonment under both EAR and ITAR criminal provisions.

Document Retention: What to Keep and for How Long

• I-9 forms: 3 years from hire date or 1 year after termination, whichever is later (per 8 U.S.C. § 1324a(b)(3))
• LCA/PAF documents: 1 year beyond last employment date or LCA expiration, whichever is later (20 CFR § 655.760)
• Payroll records (H-1B): 3 years from creation
• PERM labor certification files: 5 years from filing date (20 CFR § 656.10(f))
• H-1B petition files (I-797 approvals, RFE responses): Through end of petition validity period at minimum
• H-2A/H-2B records: 3 years from certification, denial, or withdrawal

2025/2026 Regulatory Changes Affecting Large Employers

H-1B Modernization Rule (effective January 17, 2025): Revised specialty occupation definition, codified deference to prior approvals, expanded FDNS site visit authority, eliminated itinerary requirement for multi-location workers, and introduced "bona fide position" requirement. Entrepreneurs with controlling interest (>50% ownership or majority voting) can now have their companies petition on their behalf, with initial approvals limited to 18 months and first extensions also limited to 18 months; only subsequent extensions may be granted for up to three years. (Federal Register 89 FR 103054)

H-1B registration fee increase (effective April 1, 2024): The USCIS Fee Schedule Final Rule (89 FR 4788) increased registration fees from $10 to $215 per beneficiary, first applied in the FY 2026 cap season.

$100,000 supplemental H-1B fee (September 19, 2025 Presidential Proclamation): Applies to new petitions for beneficiaries outside the U.S. without a valid H-1B visa, or requiring consular or port-of-entry notification. A D.C. federal court upheld the fee's legality on December 23, 2025 in Chamber of Commerce v. DHS, Case No. 1:25-cv-03675. The Chamber of Commerce appealed, and the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments on March 9, 2026; the appellate decision remains pending as of April 2026. The proclamation expires September 21, 2026 unless extended. The same proclamation directed DOL to revise prevailing wages upward, though no final rule has been published.

Wage-weighted H-1B lottery (effective February 27, 2026): Replaces random selection with probability-weighted selection favoring higher-wage registrations for the FY 2027 cap season.

Maximum EAD validity reduced (effective December 5, 2025): From five years to 18 months for several major categories, including refugees (A03), asylees (A05), withholding of removal (A10), pending asylum (C08), pending adjustment of status (C09), and pending suspension/cancellation (C10). Categories such as OPT, J-2, H-4, and L-2 EADs are not affected.

Stay current on all regulatory changes affecting your workforce with Alma's business immigration resources. For enterprise-level compliance support, explore Alma's enterprise solutions.

Why Choose Alma for Immigration Compliance?

See how companies manage their foreign national workforce with Alma's case studies.

Managing 100+ foreign nationals means tracking hundreds of deadlines, maintaining dozens of PAFs, responding to government audits on short notice, and keeping up with a regulatory environment that changed more in 2025 than in the prior decade combined. Alma's platform was built for exactly this challenge. With an industry-high approval rate, Alma combines attorney expertise with technology-driven compliance infrastructure.

Compliance tracking built into every case: Every Alma engagement includes platform access with real-time case tracking, automated deadline alerts, document organization, and direct attorney communication. Teams can see the status of every petition, every expiration date, and every compliance milestone in one dashboard.

Transparent, per-visa pricing: Alma charges flat fees per visa type. H-1B cap and cap-exempt petitions start at $3,500, with extensions and amendments at $3,000. L-1 initial petitions are $6,000, and L-1 initial company blanket applications are $8,000. RFE responses, administrative charges, and up to 3 consultation calls per matter are included. Volume discounts are available for companies managing larger foreign national populations.

Scalable support for growing teams: From startup to growth stage to enterprise, Alma provides bi-weekly status calls with a lead attorney, white-glove migration from existing vendors, and compliance infrastructure that grows with your workforce.

Get started with Alma to discuss your company's compliance needs.