Restricted Party Screening: How-To Guide

The University of Washington maintains a subscription to Descartes™ Visual Compliance software that searches federal restricted party lists, automatically updates as changes to the lists occur, and notifies UW of potential matches. This process is called Restricted Party Screening (RPS).

Create your account

You must have a UW NetID.

  1. UW personnel who will conduct RPS in their area of responsibility must request a Visual Compliance account.
  2. An account, personal to you, is created on the University’s instance.
  3. To ensure that your Visual Compliance account is correctly associated with your UW identity, enter “University of Washington” in the Company field and your @uw.edu email address in the email field.
  4. You will receive an automated email from Visual Compliance when your account has been set up.

Sign in

Once you have a Visual Compliance account, you will access the system by selecting Login on the Visual Compliance homepage.

  1. Enter your @uw.edu email address into the Username field, then select Continue.
  2. You will be redirected to a UW NetID login page.
    • Enter your NetID and select Next.
    • Enter your NetID password and select Sign in.

Note: If you’ve already authenticated to your UW NetID account in your current browser session, then you may not be prompted to log in and will instead be taken directly to your Visual Compliance homepage.

Running a Visual Compliance Search

After logging in, select “Administrative Screening” under “Restricted Party Screening.”

If you are searching for an individual:

  1. Type the first and last name in the “Name” box. Do not include middle names, manners of address, or degrees/credentials because those can confuse the search.
  2. Select the country they are associated with in the “Country” box. If the individual is associated with multiple countries, you will need to search each country individually.
  3. From the “Comment” dropdown menu, choose the applicable situation (i.e. travel, visitor, grant, etc.).
  4. In the “add comments” box, add a relevant identifier (ex. an agreement number, conference name, etc.). A search will not run with an empty comment box.
  5. Select “Screen” to run the search.

If you are searching for a company or organization:

  1. Type the entity’s name in the “Company” box.
    • Acronyms and abbreviations will not search properly and, therefore, an institution’s full name should be used.
  2. Select the country they are associated with in the “Country” box. If the entity is associated with multiple countries, you will need to search each country individually.
  3. From the “Comment” dropdown menu, choose the applicable situation (i.e. travel, visitor, grant, etc.).
  4. In the “Add comments” box, add a relevant identifier (ex. an agreement number, conference name, etc.). A search will not run with an empty comment box.
  5. Select “Screen” to run the search.

Visual Compliance Search Tips

Do not search for both an individual and an institution simultaneously because a company will be assigned priority.

Do not use symbols or special characters in search fields as it may void the search, cause a bad search, or cause an error.

While Visual Compliance can perform a native language search and return results if the native name was submitted by the government agency that developed the restriction list, you will get better results if you conduct your search in English.

Need more help using Visual Compliance?

Review these short videos created by the Visual Compliance team – you must be logged in to Visual Compliance to access them:

Understanding Visual Compliance Search Results

If the search does not generate any matches and the activity does not involve a country of concern or otherwise require the International Assessment Process, then no restricted parties have been identified, and you can proceed with your activities.

If the search does generate a result or results, it is important to first evaluate the information. First, confirm that the alert is a match for the name you screened. This means not only looking at the name on the result but also supporting information, like the address, to ensure it matches. If you have confirmed that the result is indeed a match, you then check whether the match is on a prohibitive list or whether it is on a red flag/informational list.

Person or organization not listed?

If the person or organization you are looking to conduct business with is on any of the following lists, please contact the Office of Research Security at researchsecurity@uw.edu for further guidance:

  • Department of Commerce (Bureau of Industry and Security)​: Entity List​
  • Department of State​: Debarred List​, Nonproliferation Sanctions​, Designated Terrorist Organizations​, Terrorist Exclusion List​
  • Department of the Treasury (Office of Foreign Assets Control)​: Specially Designated Nationals List, Chinese Military Companies List (Annex A to EO 14032)​, Foreign Sanctions Evaders List​, Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List​
  • Department of Defense​: Counter Unwanted Foreign Influence on DOD-Funded Research at Inst. of Higher Education (1286 List)​, Department of Defense Military List / Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States (1260h List)​
  • All Federal Agencies​: Lists of Excluded, Debarred, and ineligible Individuals/Entities

Risk Country notices will appear for any search that includes countries that appear within Visual Compliance’s sanction programs. This Risk Country notice will include important details that may apply to your interactions with the searched Name or Company, even if there are no matches to that entity directly. A Risk Country notice itself is not automatically disqualifying for collaboration but should be checked for applicability. Activities involving countries of concern must be routed through the International Activity Assessment Process (if applicable).