Audit Your H-1B Wage Levels: Build the LCA-to-Petition Alignment USCIS Can Test

The deadline is the date you stop changing the job description after the LCA is filed. The rule is that the wage level must be defensible against the duties, experience, and classification in the petition. The workaround is a dated file that shows the reasoning before anyone asks.

The mismatch is the audit trigger

USCIS reported on September 5, 2026 that its Vermont office had found H-1B filings with wage classifications inconsistent with the work involved. The agency took denial and revocation action against multiple H-1B petitions from an unnamed major IT consulting company. Its officials concluded that the wage levels attached to skilled technology jobs were below what the agency thought the positions justified. In the H-1B enforcement action, the agency characterized the conduct as wage misclassification. USCIS said the practice depressed required wages and created unfair competition for U.S. workers. The action concerned employer H-1B petitions, not the revocation of individual workers' H-1B visa stamps.

The practical test is whether a reviewer can trace the wage level to the duties, experience, and classification you actually filed. A weak file usually fails because the level-driving duties are not visible. The wage level is not a standalone number.

Build the public access file from the checklist

Use the checklist as a quick test for each open role. Each item should produce a document or a sentence you can put in the public access file.

• Pull the filed duties from the LCA and the petition, and mark the words that drive the wage level.
• Identify the level-driving duties, such as supervision, architecture, client-facing design, or advanced analysis, and note which ones are not present.
• Compare the wage survey or prevailing wage source to the duties, experience, and location actually filed.
• Document the rationale for the selected wage level in plain language, including why a higher or lower level was not used.
• Reconcile the LCA and petition so the SOC classification, job title, duties, and experience requirements match.
• Store the completed file in the public access file, with the survey, rationale, and reconciliation dated and indexed.

The first two items force the file to start from what was filed, not what the role became. If the role is presented as senior, the file should show the senior work; if it is not, the file should say so. A job description that drifts after filing is the usual source of H-1B wage level mismatch.

The survey item keeps the wage level tied to the real job. A survey that covers a broader or lower-complexity occupation can look convenient, but it weakens the file. The survey should match the worksite, not the office where the manager sits. If the employee will work remotely, the file should show the worksite used for the wage determination and the reason it was selected.

The final items make the reasoning available where it belongs. A short memo is better than a bare number, and it gives the reviewer a basis for follow-up. Reconciliation catches the quiet errors: a title on one form, a classification on another, and a duty statement in between. If the file is not stored, the rationale is not defensible.

Make the file answer why this level

Start with the question a reviewer asks first: why this level? The answer should be short enough to read quickly and specific enough to survive a follow-up. If the answer depends on a duty that is not in the petition, the file has a gap.

The gap often appears in the experience requirement. A role that asks for senior experience but describes entry-level tasks creates a mismatch. A role that asks for junior experience but requires architectural judgment creates the same problem. The wage level has to sit inside the same range of responsibility.

Keep the same language across the LCA, petition, and internal job description. If the role changes, the old file should remain intact and the new file should start fresh. A defensible H-1B compliance file is the one a reviewer can follow without asking questions.

If you cannot answer the checklist in a short review, the file is not ready.