Make every H-1B public access file audit-ready in one working day

The deadline drives the fix: for an H-1B LCA, the public access file must be located at either the main U.S. office or the worksite and be ready for inspection no later than one working day after the labor condition application, or LCA, is filed. That makes the file the opening surface an inspector sees, not a folder you assemble after a notice arrives. Build it as an audit file from the start, and the rest of the compliance work becomes maintenance instead of rescue.

The Department of Labor announced Project Firewall on September 19, 2025, and the initiative includes interagency coordination with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Project Firewall is a Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division initiative that uses enforcement mechanisms to identify potential H-1B program violations. The practical effect is simple: a missing page, a stale payroll record, or a file that takes days to pull can become the opening exhibit in a broader review.

Employers that file labor condition applications for H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 workers must establish and keep a public access file for every LCA. Audit-ready means the public access file, or PAF, can answer the location question, the ownership question, and the proof question without a scramble. The location and ownership answers are operational. The proof answer is legal. If the answer to any of them is a search, the file is not ready.

The file is the opening surface

The location rule is easy to miss because the file often lives where the paperwork was created, not where the inspection will happen. If the file is scattered across shared drives, email threads, and a manager's laptop, you have already failed the readiness test before the inspector asks for it. The fix is a named owner and a known location for each LCA.

Retention runs on separate clocks

The retention question is where files die quietly. A public access file must be kept for one year after the final work date of any H-1B nonimmigrant under the LCA; if no one was ever employed under it, the retention period is one year from the LCA's expiration or withdrawal. The payroll records covered by 20 CFR 655.731 are subject to their own three-year retention requirement, measured from creation. The calendar should not depend on memory; it should depend on the LCA, the final work date, and the creation date of the payroll record.

Penalty math turns a missing page into a liability

Per-LCA stacking is the reason a single weak file can become a portfolio problem. A gap in any LCA can turn the missing document into a violation count, a worker count, and a payroll evidence problem. Back wage exposure can sit in the same payroll trail. The file needs to show what was paid, when, and to whom.

20 CFR 655.810 sets H-1B civil money penalties at up to $2,364 for each substantial violation, $9,624 for each willful violation, and $67,367 when a willful violation displaces a U.S. worker.

The checklist that makes the file defensible

Run this list before the deadline, not after the notice. Each item is a yes/no test you can finish quickly.

• Public access file exists for every H-1B LCA.
• H-1B public access file is located at the main U.S. office or the worksite.
• File can be produced by the one-working-day readiness deadline.
• PAF retention runs one year after final work, or one year from expiration or withdrawal if no worker was employed.
• Payroll records under 20 CFR 655.731 are retained for three years from creation.
• Each LCA is mapped to the substantial, willful, and U.S. worker displacement penalty tiers: $2,364, $9,624, and $67,367 per violation under 20 CFR 655.810.

Assign the owner before the LCA is filed. That person should be able to open the file, pull the payroll record, and explain the retention date without searching for a prior email thread or shared drive folder. If any answer is no, the fix is a file correction, a payroll pull, or a retention calendar update, not a memo.