More US employers using employee verifying system

An online system in America which allows US-based employers to verify an overseas employees’ eligibility to work has passed half a million participants.

Employers who use E-Verify receive a response on an employee’s work authorisation status within seconds, with 98.8 per cent of work-authorised employees automatically confirmed instantly or within 24 hours, requiring no further employee or employer action.

“Since it was established, E-Verify have experienced exponential growth, increased accuracy and high customer-satisfaction ratings,” said Lori Scialabba, Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). “Participation in E-Verify is largely voluntary, so the fact that half a million companies have signed up demonstrates significant confidence in the programme.”

USCIS has worked over the years to strengthen the system’s integrity. These efforts have led to E-Verify agreements with select states’ departments of motor vehicles to ensure the authenticity of driver’s licenses that employees use as identity documents; the introduction of Self Check, which allows workers to look up their own employment eligibility status and correct their records before they seek employment; and a programme that combats identity fraud by locking Social Security numbers suspected of being misused for employment eligibility verification.

E-Verify have experienced significant growth since its establishment in 1996. Annual enrolments increased tenfold during the program’s first 16 years, from 11,474 in fiscal year (FY) 1996 to 111,671 in FY 2012. During FY 2013, employers used E-Verify more than 25 million times.