Labor Immigration Law

The E-Verify program, as we know it and have used to love it or hate it now, is set to expire on November 1st.  E-Verify and its requirements to verify the employment eligibility for all new hires is the cornerstone of many states’ immigration enforcement laws.  For example, South Carolina and Arizona require all or a large portion of the companies who employ workers to use E-Verify.

With the Senate in recess from August 1 until September 7, and target adjournment date of September 26, there are not many days left for Congress to consider the many issues that surround E-Verify.  Many senators wish to condition or structure E-Verify’s reauthorization with some other immigration measures.  Some of the proposed bills are likely to spur a fair amount of opposition and their passage, as proposed, is not guaranteed.

Until then, E-Verify is still operational, but the limited calendar and the desire of the U.S. congressmen to push alternative immigration measures alongside E-Verify may mean that its renewal will be down to the wire.

We at the Capitol Immigration Law Group will continue monitoring the situation on behalf of our clients and report as we get updates.  To receive timely updates please visit this site regularly, subscribe to its RSS feed, or subscribe to our email newsletter.

USCIS has released a new version of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.  Employers should start using the revised form (it has Rev. 06/16/08 in the bottom right corner) effective immediately because USCIS will no longer accept older versions.

Because employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each new hire, the change in the form should be noted.  The substantive changes in the form are minor.

The following documents are no longer acceptable evidence both as identity and as employment eligibility:

• The Certificate of United States Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561);
• The Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570);
• The Form I-151, a long out-of-date version of the Alien Registration Receipt Card (”green card’”);
• The Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327); and
• The Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form 1-571)

The revised List A of the List of Acceptable Documents now includes the most recent version of Form I-766, Employment Authorization Document.

Finally, the instructions regarding Section 1 of Form I-9 now indicate that the new hire is not required to provide a social security number unless the employer participates in the E-Verify program.

The debate surrounding E-Verify is in full force.  In the meantime, the federal government and many states are busy implementing regulations requiring employers to become E-Verify compliant and start using the E-Verify system for all of their new hires.

The latest regulation is an Executive Order 12989 as Amended, dated as of  June 6, 2008, which requires all federal agencies and departments to require from all federal contractors who are also employers to become E-Verify participants and ensure that all new hires are subject to E-Verify checks.

Section 5(a) reads: “Executive departments and agencies that enter into contracts shall require, as a condition of each contract, that the contractor agree to use an electronic employment eligibility verification system designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security to verify the employment eligibility of: (i) all persons hired during the contract term by the contractor to perform employment duties within the United States; and (ii) all persons assigned by the contractor to perform work within the United States on the Federal contract.”

Based on this Executive Order and other federal and state regulations, it is clear that E-Verify is here to stay.  While the debate on its  effectiveness and burdens on employers will continue, there are a number of “carrots” which make E-Verify participation extremely hard to reject.  In addition to the ability to obtain federal contracts, many employers must become E-Verify employers in order to be able to hire or extend F-1 visa OPT documents for highly qualified foreign graduates.

The good news is that we at the Capitol Immigration Law Group can help you with your E-Verify compliance.  We are E-Verify Designated Agent and we allow you to outsource your E-Verify compliance work to us.   As a law firm, we not only provide E-Verify processing but we can also advise your company on developments in the law which can affect your company and employees.  Please contact us for more information on how your company can become E-Verify compliant in few easy steps.

We wrote earlier today about the improvements to the E-Verify program.  In the past weeks we have been approached by some of our corporate clients and asked whether we would provide E-Verify services.  In addition to advising employers on immigration, E-Verify, and employment authorization compliance, we are now registered with USCIS as E-Verify Third Party Agent.

This E-Verify Third Party Agent status allows our employer clients to outsource the E-Verify processing to us while they remain focused on their core business processes.  If you are an employer who wishes to register under the E-Verify program and take advantage of the electronic employment authorization verification please contact us.  We provide full service E-Verify solutions to our employer clients and we would be happy to discuss your needs.

USCIS just announced a couple of significant enhancements to the E-Verify program which should increase its accuracy and appeal to employers.  One of the main concerns of E-Verify is that a fair number of legitimately authorized workers receive a non-confirmation which has consequences, ranging from embarrassment to potentially losing their employment.

About E-Verify. E-Verify is a program which provides an automated link to federal databases to help employers determine employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers.  The program is operated by USCIS in cooperation with the Social Security Administration (SSA) and it has evolved over the past 10 years to allow employers a quick (and ideally) accurate way to determine the employment eligibility of a new hire.  Currently, there are 64,000 employers who participate in the program with approximately 1,000 new enrollments weekly.  Our firm regularly provides advice to employers on E-Verify participation and compliance and we have noticed increased interest from employers.

The Changes.  Starting immediately, the E-Verify system will include naturalization data, which will help instantly the citizenship status of naturalized U.S. citizens hired and subject to verification by E-Verify employers.  According to USCIS, naturalized citizens who have not yet updated their naturalization records with the SSA are the largest category of properly authorized employees who face an initial E-Verify mismatch.

The second immediate change is that E-Verify will also include real-time arrival data from the border inspection and arrival system.  The goal of this integration is to reduce the number of mismatches related to immigration status for newly arriving workers who enter the U.S. legally through a point of entry.

Among the future plans for E-Verify - have USCIS sent back information to SSA to avoid future mismatches from happening and integrate Department of State passport records.