Saturday, July 23, 2011

Federal E-Verify Program Now Accepts Mississippi Driver's Licenses

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that a Mississippi driver's license may be used as one of the documents that new hires give to their employer to verify their eligibility to work in the United States [USCIS News Release, USCIS and Mississippi Implement New E-Verify Tool to Combat Fraud, 6/13/11].

The federal E-Verify program is a free, Internet-based system that determines the employment eligibility of new hires by comparing information from the new hire's Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) records. Earlier this year, USCIS announced that employers will soon be able to use motor vehicle documents to help determine whether individuals are authorized to work in the U.S. under the voluntary “Records and Images from DMVs for E-Verify (RIDE)” initiative. Mississippi is the first state to partner with USCIS to implement RIDE. The E-Verify program will execute the data verification and respond to the E-Verify user on whether the submitted information matches with the motor vehicle agency data or not. Employers that check Mississippi driver's licenses through E-Verify will not have access to the data contained within the Mississippi Department of Public Safety database. The employer will only be notified by USCIS of the result, such as “Employment Authorized” or “Tentative Nonconfirmation.”

More than 80% of new hires present driver's licenses to establish their identities when completing Form I-9.

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