GOVERNMENT
What is E-Verify?
I f you listen to WTOP regularly, you've
probably heard commercials for E-Ver-
ify. On June 6, 2008, President Bush
signed an Executive Order requiring all
federal contractors to register for and use
the E-Verify system to ensure that all
their employees are legally authorized to
work in the United States. This require-
ment immediately went into effect; in
fact, we have already seen a government
agency amend a solicitation and add the
requirement for bidders to include proof
of their E-Verify registration in their pro-
posal submission.
All new hires must complete an INS I-
9 form and provide documentation from
the list of acceptable documents (e.g., a
valid or expired US passport, driver's li-
cense, social security card, etc.) on their
first day of employment to validate their
eligibility for work. E-Verify is an auto-
mated system that simplifies the employ-
ee eligibility verification process. After
the company enters the employee's in-
formation from the Form 1-9, the sys-
tem crosschecks the information with
the Social Security Administration (SSA)
20 SMART BUSINESS IDEAS AUGUST 2008
and Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) databases, and verifies their citi-
zenship and/or work visa status.
How to Register and Use the System
Users can register on-line for E-Verify at
https://www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration
which provides instructions for complet-
ing the registration process. Registration
is easy and straight forward, but you must
set aside at least thirty minutes for system
training, since all users must pass a test
before they can use the system. After reg-
istering, you are required to sign a Mem-
orandum of Understanding (MOU) that
provides the terms of agreement between
you as the employer, the SSA, and DHS.
The E-verify system itself is user-
friendly and takes only minutes to en-
ter in a new employee's information. As
registered users, people in my company
find the E-Verify program to be the easi-
est part of our new hire process.
Once the information is submitted,
there are three potential responses the
system will provide:
1) Employment Authorized;
2) SSA Tentative Non-Confirmation;
or
3) DHS Verification in Process.
The system provides training on how
to respond to each of these scenarios.
Legal Ramifications
It is essential that companies under-
stand that there are legal ramifications
to participating in the E-Verify program.
DHS provides E-Verify Rules of Use,
and it is paramount that employers fol-
low them carefully. Employers may not
use the system to pre-screen applicants
for employment. The system is to veri-
fy the eligibility of new employees, not
applicants. It must also be used for ALL
employees, not just select employees, and
must be completed within three business
days of the new employee hire. We rec-
ommend at least two people in the com-
pany know how to log in and use the sys-
tem as a way to ensure that the process is
completed on time.
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Employers may not use the system to
re-verify employment authorization. If
upon submitting the employee's informa-
tion, a Tentative Non-Confirmation re-
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Potential Pitfalls

Coming October 2008

The E-Verify system is only as good
as the information entered into it. At
this point, the system has no way to alert
companies if an employee is using some-
one else's identification. Also, some con-
tractors are concerned that the database
Special Catering/Events Section
contains erroneous information, and may
tag someone as ineligible to work when
they are actually legal. Others worry
that making usage mandatory will cause
the system to be overwhelmed with us-
ers, possibly shutting it down, since there
are almost 500,000 companies registered
in the government's Central Contractor
Registration Database who will have to
use the E-Verify system.
The Executive Order also includes
a provision for penalties to be imposed
against companies found to employ un-
documented or unauthorized workers.
Penalties could range from a fine to de-
barment from federal contracting for up
to 10 years. However, it's not yet clear
whether companies that used the system
to determine that an employee was unau-
thorized will still face penalties, if they
then refuse to employ the individual.
In summary, ifyou're doing business with
the government, you'll need to register and
use the E-Verify system. In our experience,
it's easy to use and provides instant confir-
mation of a new employee's work status.

Molly K. Gimmel & Diana Dibble Kurcfeld are

the owners of Design To Delivery Inc a
government contracts consulting firm based in
Bethesda, MD. For more information,
please call them at 301.6574440 or visit
703-204-1002
www.d2dinc.com.

www.sbimag.com AUGUST 2008 SMART BUSINESS IDEAS 21