The Employment Eligibility Verification (EEV)/Basic Pilot Program. American Meat Institute Denver, CO April 4, 2007

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1 The Employment Eligibility Verification (EEV)/Basic Pilot Program American Meat Institute Denver, CO April 4, 2007

2 USCIS Verification Division Provides automated status verification information to Federal, State, and local benefit-issuing agencies and to participating private employers for newly-hired employees. SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program) Mandated by Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) USCIS provides immigration status information to customers and benefit-granting agencies in an automated & timely manner EEV (Employment Eligibility Verification/Basic Pilot Program) Mandated by Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) Partnership between USCIS and Social Security Administration (SSA) Provides a means for participating employers to verify the employment eligibility status of newly-hired employees.

3 EEV Program goals Reduce unauthorized employment Minimize verification-related discrimination Be quick and non-burdensome to employers Protect civil liberties and employee privacy

4 EEV: How it Works Uses the Verification Information System (VIS) to query SSA and DHS databases Users submit information provided on the Form I-9

5 EEV: How it Works Initial Verification will return one of 3 results within 3-5 seconds: 1. Employment Authorized - the employee is authorized to work. 2. SSA Tentative Non-Confirmation - that there is an information mismatch with SSA. 3. DHS Tentative Non-Confirmation - there is an information mismatch with USCIS at the Department of Homeland Security.

6 EEV: How it Works Tentative Nonconfirmation

7 EEV: Case Resolution If Employment Authorized, the employer records the systemgenerated verification number on the Form I-9, or can attach a printout with the verification number to the Form I-9 as a record. If Tentative Non-confirmation, the employee can contest the finding: SSN mismatches are resolved with SSA Non-citizen status mismatches are resolved with DHS If the employee chooses not to contest, it is considered a Final Non-confirmation and the employer may terminate the employee. Employees continue to work while the case is being resolved. Once the employee solves the discrepancy in his/her records, the employers logs in to Basic Pilot again and resolves (closes) the case.

8 Employer Responsibilities Employer must post a notice in an area visible to prospective employees that it is a Basic Pilot Participant Basic Pilot can only be used to verify new hires, and must be initiated within 3 days of employee s start date Basic Pilot procedures must be applied to ALL new hires, regardless of citizenship status Employers cannot use the Basic Pilot to Pre-screen job applicants Screen existing employees Re-verify current workers

9 EEV Usage Statistics 92% of all queries work authorized instantly Nearly 2 million queries run in FY work sites in the meat industry Top Industries Using Basic Pilot: Food Services and Drinking Places (7,300) Administrative and Support Services (6,200) Professional, Scientific, and Technical services (4,700) Other Information Services (3,000) Clothing and Accessories Stores (2,700)

10 State Legislation States that have enacted legislation that mandates the use of EEV GA, CO States that have their state agencies participate in EEV ID, NC, PA, MO States that have legislation pending that mandates public and private employers to verify new hires using EEV. TX, FL, KY, AZ, AK, OK, KS, SC, TN, LA, MD, CA (would require public employers) UT, MO, VA, RI (would require all public and private employers)

11 EEV Improvements Paperless employer registration Reducing incidence of mismatches Developing a marketing plan to recruit employers Developing monitoring & compliance functions Photo screening tool to reduce document fraud

12 Photo Screening Tool Pilot Program Overview The photo screening tool will be used in a small scale pilot program that began on March 10 and will run for 3 months. 48 employers in 549 hiring sites are participating in the pilot program and use this functionality as part of their hiring process. During this pilot program, we will elicit feedback from users and look at usage statistics to refine the functionality The photo screening tool functionality will then be offered to all users of the Basic Pilot/EEV in June 2007 as a mandatory tool to screen employees.

13 How does Photo Screening Change an Employer s Responsibility? Employers are required to use photo screening when a new hire presents a DHS-issued Permanent Residence Card or Employment Authorization Card as his/her I-9 documentation. Employers will be required to make photocopies of the new hire s PRC or EAD cards Employers will also be required to keep these photocopies on file with the Form I-9 It will be the employer s responsibility to determine whether the photocopy of the new hire s documents exactly match the photo supplied by the EEV when the system is queried.

14 Photograph Verification

15 Photograph Matched

16 Photograph Did Not Match

17 Contact Information Katherine Lotspeich, Chief, Outreach and Education, Verification Division, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Michael Mayhew, Management and Program Analyst, Verification Division, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Basic Pilot Employer Registration Site:

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