ImmigrationTALK: E-Verify – Coming to your Employer Soon!

Oct 30, 2011 News

By Attorney Gail S. Seeram,
[email protected]

The word “E-Verify” will soon be an everyday term or process used when applying for a job in the United States. E-Verify is free and voluntary and is the best means available for determining employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their social security numbers. The E-Verify programme was implemented under former President George W. Bush as an initiative to prevent employers from hiring undocumented immigrants in the United States.
The voluntary programme has become a popular requirement in awarding federal and state contracts. Additionally, most of the Republican candidates for President promise to make E-Verify a mandatory program for ALL employers in the United States.
WHAT IS E-VERIFY?
E-Verify is an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees. The information inputted in the electronic system is taken from the completed Form I-9, which all employees are required to complete to verify eligibility to work in the United States.
In the past, employees would complete Form I-9 and employers would simply keep the form on file. E-Verify requires the employer to take an additional step and input the information from Form I-9 into the internet based system and obtain electronic verification that the employee is authorized to work in the United States.
With the E-Verify system in place, unauthorized immigrants cannot work without a social security number, employment authorization card, permanent resident card, valid work visa, or proof of U.S. citizenship. Further, when the documents authorizing employment are about to expire, the employer will receive an email notification alerting them that these documents are about to expire.
E-Verify’s most impressive features are its speed and accuracy. E-Verify is the only service that verifies employees’ data against millions of government records and provides results within seconds. There’s no other programme that provides the same peace of mind in such little time.
E-Verify compares the information an employee provides on Form I-9 against millions of government records and generally provides results in three to five seconds. If the information matches, that employee is eligible to work in the United States. If there’s a mismatch, E-Verify will alert the employer and the employee will be allowed to work while he or she resolves the problem.
E-Verify works by comparing information entered from an employee’s Form I-9 to: 455 million Social Security Administration (SSA) records and 80 million U.S. Department of Homeland Security records.
E-VERIFY SELF CHECK SYSTEM
There have been many reports of errors in the E-Verify system. Permanent residents and U.S. citizens have reported that the E-Verify system showed a “no match” when their information was entered into the E-Verify system. This may occur if your name on your social security card is different from the name on your immigration documents or if someone is using your identity.
There is a free internet-based “Self Check” service available for U.S. worker over the age of 16 to confirm his or her employment eligibility. The service is currently available in a limited area while it is evaluated and improved. After the user enters a small amount of information, the Self Check service will check that information against various government databases to determine the user’s work eligibility in the United States.
At this point the service is offered only to users that maintain an address in Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Colombia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, or Washington.
WHAT TYPES OF EMPLOYERS USE E-VERIFY?
Federal contractors and subcontractors are required to use the E-Verify system to verify their employees’ eligibility to legally work in the United States. More than 288,000 employers, large and small, across the United States use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of their employees, with about 1,200 new businesses signing up each week.

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