Immigration Law

Federal Contractors Will be Required to Use E-Verify

By John Combs

President George W. Bush has released Executive Order 12989, requiring businesses entering into a contract with an agency or department of the federal executive branch to electronically verify the employment authorization of their employees.  The Department of Homeland Security then designated E-Verify as the electronic employment eligibility verification system that all federal contractors must use as required by the Executive Order. 

Agencies responsible for federal acquisition regulations have sent a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to the Federal Register soliciting public comment on proposed changes to these regulations.  Comments will be accepted for 60 days.   

E-Verify is a free Internet-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the legal status of new hires within seconds. More than 69,000 employers currently rely on E-Verify to determine that their new hires are authorized to work in the United States. Employers have run more than 4 million employment verification queries so far in fiscal year 2008. Of those queries, 99.5 percent of qualified employees are cleared automatically by E-Verify.

Full post as published by Immigration Law for Employers on June 09, 2008 (boomark / email).