As our readers know, we’ve been closely monitoring the new employment eligibility Self-Check service offered by the Homeland Security and the Social Security Administrations in conjunction with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as these agencies continue to roll out the employer-conducted hirability test, E-Verify,  for each employee.  Each new hire must pass E-Verify, which is accessed via and operated by, the  USCIS.  Self-Check is a free service that anyone can use from any computer to privately to check his/her ability to pass the E-Verify test.

While Self-Check is voluntary,  E-Verify is not.

From the USCIS site:

Then:

No one can require you to use Self Check to guarantee your work authorization. For example, it is unlawful for a current or potential employer to require you to provide them with proof of your positive Self Check result in order to keep, accept or be offered a job.

If an employer or potential employer asks you to run a Self Check query to prove that you are authorized to work in the United States, you should notify the Department of Justice, Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices.

Additionally, a positive Self Check result should not be a condition of membership into any group or organization, and is not to be required for receipt of any benefit, service, or good from a Federal, state or local agency or a private party.

Definition of E-Verify from the USCIS:

The problems, you ask?  I’ll point out one wraparound issue out of the many that exist.

1.  An employer must run E-Verify with 72 hours of the first date of pay of the new hire.

2. An employer cannot require that an employee pre-qualify him/herself via Self-Check prior to hire. (Information required for a Self-Check is similar to that provided on a credit check and would, presumably, only be known to the employee.  Wait for it…  The prospective employee can administer the Self-Check as many times as possible until s/he gets all of the answers correctly.)

3. If E-Verify concludes that an employee is authorized to work, it does not create a legal presumption that the employer has not violated immigration law.

Ok, so let’s see if we have this straight.  An employer can’t pre-check (via Self-Check) a potential employee’s employment  eligibility and s/he can’t request same of the potential new hire.  An employer must conduct the E-Verify check after the employee has been hired (read: paid) and even after the employee is greenlit to work by the government, the employer can still be held legally liable should the new hire’s employment eligibility turn out to be invalid.

Why does the employer still hold any potential liability for the new employee if the responsible federal agencies have all agreed that said employee has met the government-established employment criteria?

I’ll repeat myself from past posts I’ve authored on this topic.  Making employers de facto arms of law enforcement is not the way to go.  Ensuring effective employment eligibility  must begin at the government-issued I.D. level.

Kicking the ball back to employers is way too much interference with private business.

On a final note, if the potential employee is red flagged, the employer receives a “Tentative Non-Confirmation” notice as the government and employee try to work out any possible errors (more money out of the employers’ pockets).  At the second “Permanent Non-confirmation”, the employer is required to fire the new employee.  A) Many employers are not going to wait for the second notice to fire a Non-Confirm thereby spending more money on a person who may not be with the company next week an b) how much will this cost the old hires who are erroneously identified as Non-Confirms? Or is the cost of straightening that out absorbed by the employer?  (The government has already waived any financial, legal and discriminatory hire practice liability on its part regarding any E-Verify and Self-Check system errors.)

We’ll continue to keep an eye on this hiring process as developments warrant.

As always, be safe.

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• USCIS Launches Spanish-Language Version of E-Verify Self Check (globalthinkers.wordpress.com)
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Filed under: employee, employment, Employment Regulations | Tagged: E-Verify, Employment, Self-Check, Social Security Administration, United States, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, United States Department of Homeland Security, USCIS | 1 Comment »