Jun. 20, 2008
E-Verify is a free internet-based system that provides an automated link to federal databases to help employers determine employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers. President George W. Bush has amended Executive Order 12989 in order to direct all federal departments and agencies to require contractors, as a condition of each future federal contract, to agree to use an electronic employment eligibility verification system designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security to verify the employment eligibility of all persons hired during the contract term and all persons performing work within the United States on the federal contract. In response to this Executive Order, Secretary Michael Chertoff designated E-Verify as the system of choice to ensure that the federal government only does business with companies that agree to verify the employment eligibility of their new hires and further, that the specific employees tapped to perform contract services in the United States for the federal government are authorized to work in this country. Federal departments and agencies within the executive branch are already enrolling with E-Verify to check the status of all new hires within the federal workforce. Agencies responsible for federal acquisition regulations (FAR) will send a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to the Federal Register soliciting public comment on proposed changes to these regulations. Comments will be accepted for 60 days. More than 69,000 employers currently rely on E-Verify to determine that their new hires are authorized to work in the United States. E-Verify works by allowing participating employers to electronically compare employee information taken from the Form I-9 (the paper-based employment eligibility verification form used for all new hires) against more than 425 million records in SSA's database and more than 60 million records in DHS's immigration databases. Results are returned within seconds. Employers have run more than 4 million employment verification queries so far in fiscal year 2008. Of those queries, 99.5 percent of qualified employees are cleared automatically by E-Verify. E-Verify is currently free to employers and is available in all 50 states. Link: E-verify
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