As a user of E-Verify, the electronic employment eligibility verification program, ever wonder what happens behind the scenes regarding your use of the program? Well,rest assured there is someone watching. E-Verify’s Monitoring and Compliance (M&C) Branch monitors the use of E-Verify by participating companies in an effort to identify and correct non-compliant activities. In order to ensure compliance with the program M&C has at its disposal the power of a:
- Desk review — a compliance assistance action in which M&C requests E-Verify employment-related documents from an E-Verify employer and then reviews and analyzes the documents to determine compliance with proper E-Verify policies.
- Site visit — involves a more in-depth review of an E-Verify users use of the program by means of an on-site visit to “provide better and more comprehensive compliance assistance”. Government speak for you’ve probably really gooned something up and we need to be physically present to see it and believe it.
Common errors M&C monitors and which may lead to a desk review or site visit:
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Having a history of not printing the Tentative Non-Confirmation notice which must be provided to employees
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Creating duplicate cases for the same employee
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Verifying employees hired before Nov. 7, 1986
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Immediately terminating employees who receive a TNC
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Failing to create a case by the third day after the employee started work for pay
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Creating cases for employees who were hired before the E-Verify participant enrolled in E-Verify
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Not reviewing acceptable documents
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Not reviewing a document containing a photo
A desk review may be initiated by a simple email or phone call to your E-Verify point of contact so you need to be on alert for such and treat it seriously. Penalties range from termination from the E-Verify program to referral to another agency such as the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Counsel or Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a potential enforcement action. If you want to read more and take a self-assessment (for direct access users) check out the Self-Assessment Guide.