A manager approves a remote-work request. Payroll gets the new address two weeks later. Immigration finds out at the next case review, sometimes after the employee has already been working from a location their Labor Condition Application never covered. For employees in H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 status, that gap is where compliance breaks. Here is how to check a move before it happens.
- An employee's home can be a place of employment for H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 purposes when the employee performs their regular job duties there. A company-wide remote-work policy does not by itself confirm that every home address is covered.
- Move within the same commuting area: a new LCA is generally unnecessary when the existing LCA already covers that area and no other material employment change has occurred. You must still provide any required notice for the new worksite on or before the employee starts working there and retain documentation of that notice.
- Move outside the commuting area: you generally need a certified LCA for the new area and an amended H-1B petition properly filed before the employee starts working under the changed terms. Whether the employee can start once the amendment is filed, rather than waiting for approval, depends on whether H-1B portability applies. Confirm this with counsel before the move.
- "Temporary" remote stints: for an H-1B employee only, the short-term placement rule caps out at 30 workdays a year in an area of employment not covered by an applicable LCA, or 60 if the employee keeps real ties to the permanent site, and only if the employer meets every condition, including paying the employee's actual lodging, travel, meal, and incidental expenses. It is not a general-purpose remote-work allowance, and it does not apply to H-1B1 or E-3 employees.
- LCA violations can result in back wages, civil penalties, and disqualification from approval of covered immigration petitions. The consequences depend on the specific violation and surrounding facts.
- Send every proposed address change, remote-work request, or extended out-of-area arrangement to immigration counsel before you approve it.
Why an employee's work location matters
A Labor Condition Application, or LCA, ties a sponsored position to specific geographic areas of employment. Through it, you attest to the wage, the working conditions, and the notice given to other workers at that location.
The location determines the required wage that applies. It also determines where you owe notice of the LCA filing. DOL defines a place of employment as the physical location where the work is performed, and an employee's home can be a place of employment when the employee performs their regular job duties there. A blanket "work from anywhere" policy does not, by itself, establish that every location is covered.
The Department of Labor defines the area of intended employment as the area within normal commuting distance of the worksite. There is no single nationwide mileage rule. A metropolitan statistical area can be a useful reference point, but the actual answer depends on the specific locations and ordinary commuting patterns between them. See the DOL fact sheet on H-1B worksites for the full definition.
When you get a remote-work request, ask one question first: does the new address fall within the area your current LCA already covers?
Three compliance gaps behind a remote-work move
The employee moves within the area their current LCA already covers, for example one suburb to another in the same metro. A new LCA and amended petition are generally not required.
You still need to provide notice for the new worksite and keep evidence of it. Hard-copy notice must appear in at least two conspicuous locations for a total of 10 days. DOL also accepts electronic notice through a channel you already use to communicate job vacancies or promotions, such as email or an intranet post. If you use direct email, it must go out once to every affected employee in the occupational classification at that worksite, including workers employed by another entity if the location is a third-party site, not only the employee who moved. Retain the notice, dates, locations, and distribution evidence in the Public Access File.
This is the step that most often gets missed. Payroll and the employee directory get updated. Immigration counsel never hears about the move, so the notice and the file update never happen.
The employee's new home falls outside the area the current LCA covers, for example a move from a Chicago-area worksite to Nashville. You generally need a certified LCA for the new area and an amended H-1B petition, filed before the employee starts working from the new location.
Evaluate the required wage for the new location before the move. It is generally the higher of the prevailing wage for that location and your actual wage for the position, so wage rates can differ significantly between metro areas and the amendment may need to bring the employee's salary up to the new area's requirement.
The amended petition must be properly filed before the employee begins working under the changed terms. An employee who meets the H-1B portability requirements may generally begin working at the new location once the amended petition is properly filed, without waiting for approval. Other employees may need to wait for approval before starting at the new location. Confirm which applies with immigration counsel before the move. The rule for H-1B1 and E-3 employees works differently since those categories do not use the same H-1B amendment process, so route these to counsel rather than applying the H-1B rule across all three.
For an H-1B employee only, DOL's short-term-placement provision may cover a qualifying temporary assignment in an area of employment not covered by an applicable LCA, up to 30 workdays a year, or up to 60 if the employee keeps a dedicated workstation and spends substantial time at the permanent worksite, lives near it, and meets a handful of other conditions. An unlisted address within an area already covered by an LCA follows the same-area rules instead. Every day the employee performs at least an hour of work counts toward the limit. This provision does not apply to H-1B1 or E-3 employees.
The employer must satisfy every condition to use it, including continuing to pay the required wage and covering the employee's actual lodging, travel, meal, and incidental expenses for the temporary period. It is not built for an arrangement that has effectively become the employee's new permanent base. An employee who pays their own living expenses in the new city and rarely returns to the original worksite likely does not qualify, regardless of the day count.
Send every out-of-area request to immigration counsel before you approve it, including ones the employee describes as temporary. Duration alone does not settle the question, and an arrangement that looks informal to a manager can still fail every condition of the short-term placement rule.
Business travel is usually a different question
Not every location where an employee opens a laptop becomes a new place of employment. A qualifying individual or employer-required developmental activity, such as a management conference, staff seminar, or formal training course, may fall outside the definition of a worksite when the regulatory conditions are satisfied. A customer visit can also qualify, but only when the travel is required by the employee's normal job functions, the visits are casual and short, and the other regulatory conditions are met. That analysis includes specific limits on consecutive workdays, generally 5 consecutive workdays for an employee whose occupation requires frequent travel and 10 consecutive workdays for an employee who is normally based at one location and travels occasionally.
Do not treat "business travel" as a general exception for ordinary remote work. A month of ordinary remote work from another state is not a conference or a qualifying job-function visit, whatever label gets attached to the calendar invite.
What an LCA violation can cost
A missed location change can create wage liability, civil penalties, and petition consequences. DOL assesses LCA violations under 20 C.F.R. § 655.810 in three tiers, and the top tier applies specifically when the violation involves displacing a U.S. worker, not to every willful violation. These figures are adjusted periodically for inflation; the maximums below are current as of September 2026:
| Violation tier | Maximum civil penalty | What triggers it |
|---|---|---|
| Certain specified violations | Up to $2,364 per violation | Specified violations, including substantial notice or LCA-specificity failures and material misrepresentations |
| Willful violation | Up to $9,624 per violation | Specified willful failures, willful material misrepresentation, or prohibited discrimination |
| Willful violation with U.S. worker displacement | Up to $67,367 per violation | Displacement of the employer's U.S. worker during the statutory 90-day window, combined with a specified willful violation or willful misrepresentation |
Backpay is a separate remedy for wage or benefits underpayment. It does not automatically accompany every penalty.
The number of affected workers and the duration and gravity of the violations may increase the employer's overall exposure. The regulation treats the number of workers as a penalty factor, but it does not establish an automatic employee-by-year multiplication formula. Depending on the violation, DOL may disqualify the employer from approval of covered immigration petitions for at least one, two, or three years. Compliance history, good-faith efforts, and financial gain are also among the factors DOL may consider.
Suppose an employee sponsored for a Dallas-area role begins working regularly from San Francisco without a location review. If the required wage applicable to the San Francisco employment exceeded the wage paid, DOL could order the difference as back wages. Counsel would need to evaluate the uncovered period, any available exception, and the appropriate prospective filing steps. A later filing does not automatically cure the earlier period.
The workflow gap behind most location violations
Most companies already have the information needed to catch a location change, but it sits in disconnected systems. A manager approves the remote-work request. Payroll gets the new address. IT ships equipment to the new state. Tax registers the employee in the new jurisdiction. Immigration keeps using the original worksite on file.
Each team completes its task, but no single team owns the question of whether the employee's immigration status permits work from the new location.
The location-change control to put in place
Route every one of these to immigration review before you approve it:
- A home-address change for a sponsored employee.
- A new remote or hybrid schedule, or work from another state or metro area.
- An extended period working away from the regular location.
- A transfer to a client site, a new manager, or a change in legal employer.
Current and proposed address, requested start and end dates, days per week at the new location, and whether any job duties, salary, or manager are changing.
Same commuting area, different commuting area, short-term placement, or a business-travel exception that is not a worksite change at all.
Electronic or physical notice, a prevailing-wage check, a new LCA, or an amended petition, depending on the classification above.
Compare the worksites on file with immigration counsel against current HRIS and payroll addresses. This is what catches a move that skipped the approval process.
What to check this week
- Pull a list of everyone in H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 status.
- Compare their current HRIS and payroll addresses against the worksites your immigration counsel has on file.
- Flag every unexplained mismatch and every out-of-area arrangement that was not reviewed before it began, regardless of its stated duration, for review before you change anything about the employee's terms.
- Add an immigration checkpoint to your remote-work and address-change workflows so the next move gets caught before it starts, rather than at the next extension filing.
How WayLit can help
Beyond filing cases, WayLit manages this compliance for you automatically. A work location or salary that falls below the prevailing wage gets flagged before the case moves forward. Your team also gets one dashboard that surfaces every upcoming filing deadline and status issue across your sponsored workforce before it becomes a problem.
Frequently asked questions
The underlying LCA and worksite rules are similar, but H-1B1 (Chile and Singapore) and E-3 (Australia) do not go through the same H-1B amendment process. Send these to immigration counsel rather than assuming the H-1B answer applies directly.
Send the facts to immigration counsel promptly rather than waiting for the next filing. Do not backdate notices, change records retroactively, or assume that a later filing automatically corrects the earlier period. The right response depends on how long the employee has been in the area of employment not covered by an applicable LCA and how soon a petition or extension is due, and counsel should confirm the specific correction available.
- U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #62J: Place of Employment for H-1B Workers
- U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #62K: Short-Term Placement for H-1B Workers
- U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 FAQs, Round 4
- 20 C.F.R. § 655.734, Labor Condition Application: Notice
- 20 C.F.R. § 655.715, Definitions (place of employment, required wage, and worksite exclusions)
- 20 C.F.R. § 655.810, Remedies for LCA violations (current civil penalty tiers, as of September 2026)
- DHS, Modernizing H-1B Requirements Final Rule (codifying current amended-petition worksite-change policy at 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(h)(2)(i)(E))
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult qualified immigration counsel before making decisions about your sponsored workforce.
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