As of July 31, 2017, Arizona, Maryland, and Wyoming are official participants in the federal government’s E-Verify enhancement program, RIDE.
The Record and Information from DMVs for E-Verify (RIDE) verifies the validity of state-issued driver’s licenses and ID card information by matching data entered by employers into E-Verify against state departments of motor vehicles records. This partnership enables E-Verify to validate the authenticity of state-issued driver’s licenses and state ID cards when provided by an employee to prove identity when completing the I-9 process.
According to USCIS, approximately 80 percent of all documents presented by employees as proof of identity during the I-9 process are driver’s licenses or ID cards. Further, USCIS states that the RIDE program helps to reduce document employment eligibility verification fraud in E-Verify.
Ten states currently participate in the RIDE program (Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming). While the RIDE program has grown slowly over the past six years, continued adoption of mandatory E-Verify use suggests further expansion of the RIDE program in years to come.
Employers participating in E-Verify will now be prompted to enter document information, which will be verified against state records, when presented with a state driver’s license or ID card (from the above listed states) as a List B document. For example, if an employer in Georgia who uses E-Verify is presented with a driver’s license from Wyoming as a List B document, E-Verify will prompt the employer for additional information. Fact Sheets for each state participating in the RIDE program can be found on the USCIS website.
Employers are reminded that this update will only impact newly hired employees in those states now participating in the RIDE program. Employers must not use E-Verify to verify existing employees (with the exception of federal contractors).