Both houses of Congress have agreed on legislation – H.R. 933: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 – that includes a funding of $111 million to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services department for expenses for the E-Verify Employment Eligibility Verification Program. This program is designed to verify that a prospective employee is legally eligible to work in the U.S.
H.R. 933 makes appropriations for the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other departments and agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013. The legislation is currently in the House of Representatives and has yet to be signed off by the President.
E-Verify is a free web-based system compares information from the Employment Eligibility Verification, Form I-9 that all newly hired workers must fill out to government records in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) databases. For more information about E-Verify, visit: http://www.dhs.gov/e-verify.
E-Verify will become an excellent tool to assist employers and to reduce access to jobs for those not yet legally eligible to work in U.S. Once a candidate is verified as being eligible to work, employers should also conduct a criminal background check,verification of employment history and an education history verification at the minimum to ensure that the applicant’s provided background information is accurate.