What is E-Verify and How Does the Program Work?

E-Verify is a free, voluntary program that uses an automated system to verify the employment authorization of all newly hired employees through Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security databases. The program started under the name “Basic Pilot” and was originally available only to employers with operations in six states (California, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, New York and Texas). It became available to employers in all 50 states on December 1, 2004.

Basic Pilot/E-Verify is the last of three employment verification pilots required by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (the Machine-Readable Document Pilot and the Citizen Attestation Pilot programs ended in May and June 2003), and it is scheduled to end in November 2008. When the Immigration and Naturalization Service became part of the DHS on March 1, 2003, the pilot programs came under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service's (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program.

Verification assistance. As a participant in E-Verify, employers are required to verify all newly hired employees, both U.S. citizens and non-citizens. Employers may not verify selectively, and must verify all new hires while participating in the program. The program may not be used to prescreen applicants for employment, go back and check employees hired before the company’s participation in E-Verify, or reverify employees who have temporary work authorization. An employer who verifies work authorization under E-Verify establishes a rebuttable presumption that it has not knowingly hired an unauthorized alien. However, participation in the program does not provide a “safe harbor” from worksite enforcement.

Photo Screening Tool. In September 2007, a Photo Screening Tool was added to E-Verify to help employers more accurately verify a new non-citizen employee’s identity. It will be available when a new employee presents an Employment Authorization Document or Permanent Resident Card (“green card”) to complete the Form I-9. Designed to help employers determine whether the document presented reasonably relates to the individual presenting it and contains a valid photo, the Photo Screening Tool allows employers to compare identical photos —the individual’s photo on the document presented against the image stored in USCIS’ databases.

Participation. The program is generally voluntary and employers may choose to leave the program at any time. However, as a condition of each future contract, federal contractors must agree to use E-Verify to verify the employment eligibility of all persons hired during the contract term and all persons performing work within the United States on the federal contract. Additionally, some states have tried to legislatively require (Arizona) or prohibit (Illinois) participation. Both the Arizona and Illinois laws have been challenged in court.

You can register for E-Verify at www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration EXE:  https://www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration, which provides instructions for completing the registration process. At the end of the registration process, you will be required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that provides the terms of agreement between you the employer, the SSA, and USCIS. An employee who has signatory authority for the employer can sign the MOU.

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As a condition of each future contract, federal contractors must agree to use E-Verify to verify the employment eligibility of all persons hired during the contract term and all persons performing work within the United States on the federal contract.