ImmigrationE-Verify Self Check launched
DHS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the launch of E-Verify Self Check — a service that allows individuals in the United States to check their own employment eligibility status before formally seeking employment
DHS secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Alejandro Mayorkas yesterdaytoday announced the launch of E-Verify Self Check — a service that allows individuals in the United States to check their own employment eligibility status before formally seeking employment.
“E-Verify is a smart, simple, and effective tool that allows us to work with employers to help them maintain a legal workforce,” said Napolitano. “The E-Verify Self Check service will help protect workers and streamline the E-Verify process for businesses.”
E-Verify Self Check, a partnership between DHS and the Social Security Administration (SSA), is the first online E-Verify program offered directly to workers and job seekers. DHS says that this free, fast, and secure service gives users the opportunity to submit corrections of any inaccuracies in their DHS and SSA records before applying for jobs — allowing workers to protect themselves from potential workplace discrimination that could result from an employer’s abuse of the E-Verify system.
“The development of E-Verify Self Check reflects our commitment to the continual improvement of the E-Verify program,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “This new tool is a tremendous service for employees and employers alike.”
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 SSA and DHS databases and returns information on users’ employment eligibility status
The department says that the E-Verify Self Check process is designed to secure users’ personally identifiable information and to prevent misuse of the service. Additionally, information that users provide to E-Verify Self Check and the results of an E-Verify Self Check are not shared with users’ employers or prospective employers. The results of a Self Check query do not replace the results of an employer E-Verify query.
Beginning Monday, the E-Verify Self Check service is available to users who maintain an address and are physically located in Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Mississippi, Virginia, or the District of Columbia. In the coming months, USCIS will continue to expand the E-Verify Self Check service to additional eligible users on a rolling basis.
