The Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services will launch an individual self-check capability in the E-Verify program in 2010. This will allow workers to verify their own work authorization status before they apply for a job. E-Verify is the federal government's mostly voluntary electronic employment verification program. E-Verify will confirm I-9 data provided to the employer by matching information to government databases.
E-Verify currently allows employees who cannot be electronically verified 8 business days to appeal/correct the information and continue working. "Tentative nonconfirmations in the E-Verify program may be difficult for an employee to address in the eight business days" allotted under the program, said Alejandro Mayorkas, CIS director. With a self-check option, workers could correct errors before they apply for a job and without the eight-day constraint, he said.
HomeWork Solutions, the nation's leading preparer of nanny payroll and provider of nanny tax compliance services, began offering E-Verify to clients in the summer of 2008. Clients who verify their employees employment via E-Verify are provided "safe harbor" - immunity for any government penalties - in the event the employee is later deemed ineligible for employment in the US.