I-9 verification

[onofre 1]

hit here. I was born in the US. But at work, we just got a memo stating that in January there will be a I-9 verification, which is the E-Verify, which is

Federal law requires that all employers verify the identity and employment eligibility of all new employees (including U.S. citizens) within three days of hire also it states "The law requires employers to properly complete and retain a Form I-9 for every current employee hired after November 6, 1986."

Now, the problem is the question that comes in mind is there are many people who have been working here for many years and some that I know are either here illegal or SS are not good. The I-9 form is for companies to comply that they are hiring people who are able to work in the U.S. but what if they find out that some, or many are not suppose to work.

Anyone familiar with this?

[Kathryn41 3,205]

The new I-9 requirements have been in place for a while. Employers are supposed to comply to ensure that they do not have anyone working for them who is not allowed to work in the US. If they find they have ineligible employees then they are not allowed to hire them and must terminate the employment. If they are discovered to be hiring illegal workers, the employer is liable to a stiff financial penalty.

[milimelo 4,481]

on USCIS.gov website they have manuals for e-verify. If you get 'hit' you have a certain number of days to provide proof you are legal. If that does not happen, you're fired. The company could potentially be hit with fines per each person they find is illegally working.

About time they started having everyone use e-verify!

[marie09 5]

hit here. I was born in the US. But at work, we just got a memo stating that in January there will be a I-9 verification, which is the E-Verify, which is

Federal law requires that all employers verify the identity and employment eligibility of all new employees (including U.S. citizens) within three days of hire also it states "The law requires employers to properly complete and retain a Form I-9 for every current employee hired after November 6, 1986."

Now, the problem is the question that comes in mind is there are many people who have been working here for many years and some that I know are either here illegal or SS are not good. The I-9 form is for companies to comply that they are hiring people who are able to work in the U.S. but what if they find out that some, or many are not suppose to work.

Anyone familiar with this?

Hey Onofre,

I used to work in HR and one of the companies I worked for used e-verify. It's super straight forward to use. Basically you put in if the persons a resident, visa holder citizen etc... You then enter in what documents they used to complete the I9.

For citizens it matches their first and last name to their soc. For visa holders you put in the i-94 - for H visas it usually went right through. For J1s it usually took a few days to clear with DHS - no biggie. For PRs and EAD holders it brings up a photo and asks you to verify if the photo matches the photo/person whose ID it was.

The only HR office I worked at which used e-verify was in a remote part of AZ (i believe everify is mandatory there now) well in that area the majority of the population were american indians, it just wasn't an area for immigrants (not much work opportunities etc..) Though quite a few work visa holders.

So I didn't get to see what happened if you put in an illegal's details.

The only issues we had though were if a recent ead holder hadn't changed their name with SS - the EAD would be in the new name which you would enter in everify, you would then get a SS no match. The employee would have 10 business days to goto SS to change their name/resolve the discrepancy. Very easy to do and would usually clear a day or so after the person had visited the SS office.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

The way I read up on this a while ago, is that there's a trap (for lack of a more appropriate term) built into the I-9 form. Since US citizens have only to declare that they are USCs, they do not have to provide evidence a LPR or visa holder would have to provide. Therefore many illegals just claimed to be USCs, which would now turn out to be the breath of death for their future.

[marie09 5]

US citizens still have to satisfy the I9 form just as PRs do. A US citizen has to show work eligibility and identity just like aliens - typically this is done by showing either a passport (column A - both work & identity) or

a driver's license/school id (column B - identity)with a social security card or birth certificate (column c - work eligibility.)

There's a few more documents they could also show on the list which i've not listed but you get the idea. A PR can also pick which items they want to show - so long as they satisfy the I9 criteria - an employer cannot legally insist on seeing the green card if they can satisfy the i9 form using other documents. For example, they can also show a drivers license plus unrestricted soc. However someone that checks perm. resident does need to list an alien number in section 1 of the form.

From my experience everify was only ever used on new hires. I worked for seasonal businesses and only dealt with seasonal new hires. I believe for full time hires the i9 form needs to be reverified every so many years (I don't know the figure specifically - nor the exact laws on I9 reverification) I know for everify for new hires - its all new hires or none but am not sure if everify can be used on existing employees.

It sounds though from what the OP has said that the company are only going to use everify for new hires from this point forward. Hence everyone they hire from this point have to be legal. As for the current employees they're only be affected by any i9 reverification laws and if there is an i9 audit or raid.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Marie,

thank you for the comprehensive post.

My point was that -- although the I-9 form requires employers to list whether they have USCs, LPRs, or non-resident workers -- the practice is, or at least was until recently, often different.

Usually the employer only wants to see the driver license from a new employee who's a USC, at which time they would provide their SSN as well. Showing the SS card is not common practice, at least not in my experience.

If a new employee states that he or she is a LPR, however, the employer usually want to see the Green Card as proof of legal presence and authorization to work. For that reason many illegal workers have simply stated that they are USCs, often already on the application form, which generally asks whether or not the applicant is authorized to work in the United States.

As far as I read recently, the Feds are now cracking down on employers who employ illegal aliens, and that includes being very specific with the I-9 forms, by imposing hefty fines for violations of either kind.

[marie09 5]

That makes sense it was a lot easier in the past... All the places I worked were pretty strict on I9 forms... A lot of employers were pretty scared of discrimination claims too - hence why we couldn't insist on seeing a green card - letting the employee pick the docs so long as the eligibility was met.

I'm talking about my experience from 2006 onwards... So yeah like you are saying pretty recent!

What you're saying makes sense to me as the amount of americans that were annoyed they couldn't just show their driver license and give us the SSN. I'm sure maybe their experiences with other businesses were different. Especially smaller businesses without HR offices that don't have the time/ care to read the i9 handbook etc... How things have changed! I've got a pending AOS right now waiting for EAD, I have a SSN and drivers license... And i'm not eligible for work right now!