The United States Government prohibits U.S. Persons, including educational institutions, from conducting business with persons and entities designated as restricted parties (Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons - SDNs) on any federally restricted party listings. These restricted party lists are administered and enforced by multiple U.S. Governmental Agencies, including the Department of Commerce, Department of State, Department of the Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Department of Homeland Security, and others. The Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) is the central repository for many of these restricted party lists. For more information about legal obligations to pre-screen activities, please visit the following links:

The Pennsylvania State University has licensed technology from eCustoms, Inc. to facilitate the screening of entities and individuals against the federally maintained restricted party databases. This software tool, Visual Compliance, not only permits screening against all the federally maintained lists using a single interface but also auto-updates all prior screenings on a nightly basis in the event of changes to any of the restricted party lists.

To request a consolidated screening using the Visual Compliance software, please contact the University Export Compliance Office directly. For units that anticipate a large volume of screening requests, the University Export Compliance Officer may authorize direct access to the Visual Compliance software for localized screening efforts. To arrange for such access and training on the use of the software, please contact the University Export Compliance Officer and describe in reasonable detail the need for localized screening access.