This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh, Fredrikson Immigration Department Chair, is a member.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) seeks comments by August 28, 2023 on "E-Verify NextGen" (I-9NG), a new online "demonstration project" intended to further integrate the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, process with the E-Verify electronic work eligibility confirmation process "to create a more secure and less burdensome employment eligibility verification process overall for employees and employers." This internet-based project "will permit employees to create their own secure account, resolve E-Verify tentative non-confirmations (also referred to as "mismatches") in advance and directly with the government, instead of through their employer, and then receive an electronic verification response that they can use and update with subsequent employers."
The goal of E-Verify NextGen is "to streamline the employment eligibility verification and confirmation process for employers and employees" by:
- Resolving E-Verify mismatches and electronically issuing an employment authorized result to individuals who E-Verify finds to be work authorized;
- Allowing employees to receive notification of and resolve E-Verify mismatches directly with the government without requiring the employer to be an intermediary; and
- Removing the employer's primary role in the mismatch resolution process. While employers would be informed about their employee's mismatch, this process removes employers as the intermediary to communicate a mismatch to the employee. Affected employees are instead notified directly and provided the instructions required to resolve the mismatch.
