Use of E-Verify Growing Fast in 2009, Projected to Grow Even Faster

Despite the efforts of numerous opponents to derail E-Verify – a voluntary, online, electronically operated system that allows employers to quickly check the work authorization status of their new hires – the controversial program is quickly gaining popularity with a wide range of U.S. employers, growing by 1,000 companies a week.

Overseen by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and operated jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), E-Verify works by allowing employers to electronically compare information taken from the I-9 Form – the paper-based form currently used to document the work eligibility of all prospective employees – against more than 425 million records in SSA's database and more than 60 million records in DHS immigration databases.

According to USCIS, data collected from the first seven weeks of 2009 suggest that by the end of this year, E-Verify use will have grown an astounding 442% since 2007. The projected growth for E-Verify in 2009 – based on usage so far this year – is 167% more than the 2008 figure, which itself was a significant increase from the 103% growth in usage from 2007 to 2008. In addition, the rate of growth for E-Verify is likely to accelerate, resulting in an even more impressive final tally for 2009.

As of the third week in February, online queries for E-Verify in 2009 were already approaching three million, almost half the 6.6 million queries for all of 2008, a number that was itself more than double the approximately 3.2 million queries made in 2007. Data from DHS projects that by the end of 2009, over 17.7 million E-Verify queries will have been made. Those numbers translate to E-Verify being used to verify one in eight (about 13%) of newly hired workers nationwide in 2008, up from one in 18 new hires being queried in 2007 (or 6%).

The most recent DHS figures show that nearly 119,000 employers at almost 440,000 worksites have signed up with E-Verify since its inception. As for individual states, Arizona (48,985) leads in the total number of sites using E-Verify, with California (47,500) a close second and Texas (37,224) in third.

E-Verify helps employers comply with federal law cheaply, efficiently, and accurately, while ensuring that only legal workers are hired for American jobs. According to DHS, of the more than three million queries that have been run through the E-Verify system since October 2008, more than 96.1% were automatically verified as employment authorized. Overall, E-Verify has proven itself to be 99.6% accurate for all employees who are ultimately authorized to work in the United States, with “nonconfirmations” matching the estimated illegal workforce of 4% to 5%.

In addition, the E-Verify program has made improvements for foreign-born citizens, who were more likely to receive tentative nonconfirmations than U.S.-born citizens. Recently, USCIS announced that passport data is now accessible for E-Verify work authorization verification, a change that will reduce mismatches for naturalized citizens who – as citizens – are eligible to work but who have not yet updated their status with SSA. Fraud will be further reduced by E-Verify when USCIS is able to access the State Department’s original passport and visa application digital photos later in 2009.

A designated E-Verify service provider, I-9Compliance.com – a member of the Pre-Employ.com Family of Companies – can help you join the growing ranks of those employers who use the E-Verify system to confirm the legal status of workers in the United States. For more information about E-Verify, please visit www.i-9compliance.com, call 1-800-300-1821, or email sales@i-9Compliance.com.

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