DHS Updates E-Verify

E-VERIFY SYSTEM REFRESHER 

For those of you who may not know about the E-Verify system, here’s a quick refresher. It is a system administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) and Social Security Administration (“SSA”) utilized by many employers to confirm the employment eligibility of their employees.  Employers submit information taken from an employee’s Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) to the E-Verify system, which then compares that information to available records at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and the SSA.  Within a few seconds, the employer can either confirm their employee’s eligibility or are made aware that its employee needs to take further action before verification can be completed.

THE NOT-SO-NEW BUT DEFINITELY IMPROVED E-VERIFY

Good news! For those of you who use the E-Verify system to confirm employment USCIS just made your life a little easier.  USCIS improvements to the E-Verify system promise to improve your experience; reduce errors; and increase speed and accuracy.

“How?” you may ask. Well, for starters, the USCIS incorporated more user friendly instructions, real-time feedback on errors, ability to enter more than one last name for an employee, use of mobile devices to take photographs of documents, an updated process to improve the initial match rate, and streamlined case creation by removing unnecessary pages and steps as you go.  These are only a few of the total improvements made by the USCIS. There is no doubt less of your time will be spent confirming the eligibility of your employees going forward.   

WEBINARS!

USCIS offers employers and employees helpful training webinars on E-Verify and Form I-9.  If you’re new to E-Verify, curious, or would like a refresher course in this program these webinars can be a useful resource.  Here’s a link to the calendar of upcoming USCIS webinars offered on this topic.

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