I-9 and E-Verify
I-9 Form
Use Form I-9 to verify the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must properly complete Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens.
On the form, an employee must attest to their employment authorization. The employee must also present their employer with acceptable documents as evidence of identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine these documents to determine whether they reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the employee, then record the document information on the employee’s Form I-9.
What Is The I-9 Process?
Employee must complete Section 1 of the I-9 form at the time of hire. The employer must complete Section 2 of the I-9 form within three days of the employee beginning work.
Documentation: The employee must provide documentation which verifies their identity and eligibility for employment in the U.S. The employee can provide one document (from List A) which verifies both identity and employment eligibility, or two different documents; one which verified identity (from List B) and one which verifies employment eligibility (from List C). Those documents can be:List A Documents
Documents that Establish Both identity and Employment Authorization:
- U.S. Passport or U.S. Passport Card
- Form I-551, Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card
- Form I-766, Employment Authorization Document Card
- Foreign passport with Form I-94 or Form I-94A with Arrival-Departure Record, and containing an endorsement to work
- Passport from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with Form I-94 or Form I-94A
- Foreign passport containing a Form I-551 stamp or Form I-551 printed notation.
List A Documents
Documents that Establish Both
identity and Employment Authorization:
- U.S. Passport or U.S. Passport Card
- Form I-551, Permanent Resident Card or
Alien Registration Receipt Card - Form I-766, Employment Authorization
Document Card - Foreign passport with Form I-94 or Form
I-94A with Arrival-Departure Record, and containing an endorsement to work
List B Documents
Documents that Establish Identity:
- Driver’s License
- ID card issued by federal, state or local government agencies or entities, provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color and address.
- School ID card with a photograph
- Voter registration card
- U.S. military card or draft record
- Military dependent’s ID card
- U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document (MMD) card
- Native American tribal document
- Driver’s license issued by a Canadian government authority.
E-Verify
E-Verify employers verify the identity and employment
eligibility of newly hired employees by electronically matching information
given by employees on the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification,
against records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
E-Verify, which is available in all 50 states, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Commonwealth of Northern
Mariana Islands, is currently the best means available to electronically
confirm employment eligibility.
What is the E-Verify Process?
By law, every employer must
complete the I-9 Form for all employees and although the I-9 Form and E-Verify
are closely linked, E-verify is not necessary for enrolled employers to use.
When an employee is hired, the
employer and employee must complete the I-9 Form. Within three days of the
employee starting work, the employer enters the information on the I-9 into
E-Verify. E-Verify then compares the entered information against government
records for a result.
If an employee’s information
matches, they are authorized and eligible to work in the U.S. If the
information does not match, the employer is alerted. The employee then has
eight business days to resolve any mismatched information. The employee is
allowed to continue to work while they are resolving the problem.
In 2007, E-Verify began working with the federal immigration authorities
to include biometric data, including photographs, to improve searches.
Please note, if required, E-Verify must be ran within 3 days of the employee’s start date.
Who Needs E-Verify?
Unlike I-9 forms, there is no
federal law mandating the use of E-Verify searches for employees, however there
are certain groups that must use it.
All federal government agencies must use E-Verify. Furthermore, all
employers with federal contracts or subcontracts must also use E-Verify to
verify not only the employment eligibility of their employees who directly work
under those federal contracts but also for every new hire, whether or not they
will be directly working with the federal contracts or subcontracts.