Angie Walls
(photo by Oleksiy Mark from Shutterstock)
Published in The Human Resource Blog by C4CM,  March 25, 2011

Just this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a new, innovative system where individuals can self-check their employment eligibility instantly online. The E-Verify Self-Check system is being piloted in Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, Idaho, Mississippi, and Virginia, and will soon become available in more states.

E-Verify is officially operated by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services Agency with the Social Security Administration. It allows any employee or job seeker to look up their work eligibility, and human resources and employers can submit a SSN for a job applicant to quickly verify their information during the selection process.

How It Works
Once an individual SSN is entered into the online system, it is matched against the DHS and SSA databases. It first prompts the individual to submit a name, birth date, and address; confirm his or her identity by answering demographic and financial questions; and enter a Social Security Number, and if appropriate, an Alien Registration number. If it returns a match, then the person is deemed eligible.

Without a match, there are additional investigative procedures that will follow. In 2008, the E-Verify program first became required for federal contractors and other employees who must be proven eligible before they are hired. Last year, there were a total of 220,000 participating employers using E-Verify Self-Check.

According to DHS, Self-Check queries are not shared with users’ employers or prospective employers, nor will they affect a user’s credit score. Also, DHS is notified every time that a user’s identity is verified using the system.