On March 21, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the preliminary release of “E-Verify Self Check.” “Self Check” is a voluntary, fast, free and simple online service that allows individuals in the United States to check their employment eligibility status before seeking employment from an E-Verify participating employer.
The E-Verify Self Check process consists of four steps:
- Users enter identifying information online (such as name, date of birth and address).
- Users confirm their identity by answering demographic and/or financial questions generated by a third-party identity assurance service.
- Users enter work eligibility information such as a Social Security number and, depending on citizenship status, an Alien Registration number.
- E-Verify Self Check checks users’ information against relevant Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases and returns information on users’ employment eligibility status.
If the information the user provides matches the data in the SSA and DHS databases, the system will respond with a message of “work authorization confirmed.” If there are any mismatches between the information that the user provides and SSA or DHS records, the system will inform the user of a possible mismatch and how it can be corrected.
Self Check is not without its limitations. Self Check may be unable to confirm employment authorization, for example where the user enters information incorrectly, has recently attempted the identity quiz too many times, lacks a sufficient financial history, has reported fraud alerts to the state or a credit bureau, or has placed a security freeze on their credit report. Also, individuals cannot use Self Check to prove work authorization to employers or prospective employers. E-Verify employers must continue to run an E-Verify query on each new hire (or existing employee, if applicable) and use approved documentation for purposes of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
The new service is being released in phases. The service is currently only available to users that reside in Arizona, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Mississippi, and Virginia. It is anticipated that the system will be expanded to include about 16 states in fiscal year 2012. After that, the system should go nationwide.