Law Office of Leila Freijy PLLC
Immigration & Compliance Law 
E-Verify and DOMA Updates

E-Verify  

 

USCIS has announced that its latest customer service enhancement to E-Verify will allow direct notification to employees. Currently, if there is a record mismatch that needs to be resolved before the employee can be confirmed as work authorized, a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) is issued to the employer, who must then contact the affected employee. With this new enhancement, if an employee voluntarily provides his or her email address on the Form I-9, E-Verify will notify the employee of a TNC at the same time it notifies the employer. TNCs occur when information an employer provides to E-Verify about an employee does not match the data found in either U.S. Department of Homeland Security or Social Security Administration records.
 
This latest enhancement to E-Verify is made possible by a recent revision to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, used to verify the identity and employment authorization of persons hired for work in the United States. The revised Form I-9 allows employees to voluntarily provide their email address. If a TNC is received, employees who have provided their email address will be directly notified of the TNC by USCIS. Providing an email address is completely voluntary and employers are still required to notify all employees when there is a mismatch of information and a TNC is received.
 
In addition to providing the initial notice of a TNC, E-Verify will send reminder emails to employees if no action to resolve the TNC has occurred within four days of a decision to contest and to notify them about the possible need to update a Social Security or Department of Homeland Security record.

 

Note:

While not specifically stated, it is possible that the employee may be asked other questions about the company's employment verification processes.  In this regard, please remember that it is not permissible to specify documents when hiring an individual.  So, you cannot say, "Bring in your driver's license and social security card on Monday."

DOMA
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violated the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment, in the historic case of U.S. v. Windsor, (6/26/13).
  
The impact of this decision will be felt throughout several Government agencies, including the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS).  Same-sex foreign spouses will become eligible for dependent status (F-2, H-4, L-2, TD, etc.), E and L spousal employment authorization, as well as derivative U.S. Permanent Residence status (the green card), to name only a few of the many changes that we will see.
  
The USCIS is working to release guidance on how it will handle these and other immigration-related applications for same-sex spouses. 
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If you have any questions or concerns about the information provided in this email, please don't hesitate to contact me.

 

Sincerely,

 


Leila Freijy
Law Office of Leila Freijy PLLC
Contact
Leila Freijy, Esq.
2701 Troy Center Dr.
Suite 410
Troy, MI 48084
248.961.2196
248.287.4115 (fax)
  

(Of Counsel to Ellis Porter - Immigration Attorneys)