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CCH® PAYROLL — 03/04/14

E-VerifyE-verify adds e-mail notifications

E-Verify, the free online service that allows employers to verify the employment eligibility of new hires, now uses e-mail to concurrently notify the employee of important information concerning E-Verify case results. E-Verify's e-mail notifications benefit employees and employers alike by improving transparency, ensuring timely notification to the employee of a record mismatch, and encouraging timely resolution. E-Verify respects the privacy of both employers and employees. As such, the e-mails do not contain personal information. Since 1986, employers have been required to complete the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification Form, for every new hire. In early 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a revised Form I-9 that features new fields, including an optional field for the employee's e-mail address. Following the improvement, E-Verify added a new e-mail address field and now offers employee notification emails.

One field, four e-mail opportunities. There are now four possible e-mails an employee may receive.

(1) Notification from E-Verify of a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC). A TNC occurs if the information an employer entered in E-Verify from an employee's Form I-9 did not match Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) records. A TNC case result does not necessarily mean that an employee is not authorized to work in the United States.

(2) An e-mail confirming that an employee has decided to contest the TNC and that the employer referred the case to DHS or SSA. This e-mail also states the date by which the employee must contact DHS or SSA to begin to resolve the TNC.

(3) An additional e-mail will be sent if the employee decided to contest the TNC but has not contacted DHS or SSA within four days of the date that the case was referred.

(4) This e-mail is not related to a TNC. When E-Verify confirms employment eligibility for a naturalized citizen according to DHS records, but also finds that records with SSA have not been updated since the employee naturalized, the e-mail will advise the employee to visit an SSA field office to update the record.

E-mail does not replace responsibilities. On the Form I-9, the email address field is optional. However, employers who use E-Verify must now enter the e-mail address if the employee chooses to include it on Form I-9. This enables E-Verify to communicate directly with employees via e-mail. Moreover, these enhancements do not change an employer's responsibility to adhere to E-Verify's rules and respect employees' rights. Employers still have the responsibility to notify the employee of a TNC and follow the TNC process.

Streamlined TNC process. E- Verify recently simplified its TNC process by streamlining the documentation process. The TNC process involves two documents:

(1) The Further Action Notice appears when an employee receives a TNC, explains the reason for the TNC and the employee's right to contest it. The Further Action Notice replaced the former Tentative Nonconfirmation Notice and Referral Letter by condensing the content of two lengthy documents into one plain language notice.

(2) The one-page Referral Date Confirmation appears after the employee decides to contest the TNC and the employer has referred the case. It gives the date by which the employee must visit SSA or contact DHS to begin resolving the TNC.

In addition, E-Verify users may notice fewer screens to click through, resulting in clearer process and decreased processing time. E-Verify is now used by about half a million employers at 1.4 million hiring sites. Learn more about enhancements to E-Verify and how to enroll at www.dhs.gov/E-Verify. (SSA/IRS Reporter, Winter 2013.)

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