Many employers are experiencing some problems with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) E-Verify program. Participants at a November 27 conference held in Washington, D.C., concluded that communications was the most critical problem with E-Verify.

According to Katherine Lotspeich, acting chief of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) Verification Division, which oversees E-Verify, the high priority placed on communications by attendees makes improving communications the "take-home" idea from the conference.

The web-based program allows employers to upload information that would normally be on Form I-9, the employee eligibility document normally used for new hires, against more than 425 million records in the Social Security Administration's (SSA) database and, for non-citizens, against more than 60 million records in the DHS' immigration database.

Out of 7.5 million U.S. employers, about 30,000 participate in this program and DHS claims that 1,000 new employers join every week.

Most of the communication problems cited by participants deal with different interpretations of the terms "new hire" and "begin work," along with the failure of naturalized citizens to inform the SSA of their new status. In addition, some participants want more time for job candidates to resolve SSA and DHS challenges to their employment eligibility status.

To learn more, go to Society of Human Resource Managers web site at www.shrm.org

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