Enrolling in the electronic verification system and the duties that follow, the audit that begins with three days' notice, correcting and retaining employment eligibility records, the penalties for paperwork failures compared with knowing violations, discrimination in how documents are demanded, changing employer while a residence petition is pending, and transferring a manager between related companies.
While a verification mismatch is being contested, an employer may not terminate, suspend, delay training, withhold or lower pay, or take any other adverse action against the worker because of the mismatch. The standstill lasts until the case reaches a final result. Ordinary personnel decisions unconnected to the mismatch remain available, but the employer carries the burden of showing that the decision had an independent basis.
A technical or procedural failure is treated as compliance where the employer made a good faith attempt, unless the agency explained the basis for the failure, allowed at least ten business days to correct it, and the employer did not correct it voluntarily within that period. Uncorrected defects become substantive violations. The rule is unavailable to an employer engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful employment.
The statute prohibits discrimination with respect to recruitment or referral for a fee, so a job advertisement that excludes lawful workers on the basis of citizenship status is within its reach without any hiring decision being made. Exceptions exist where the restriction is required by law, regulation, executive order or a government contract, or is determined essential to doing business with a government body. A commercial preference is not among them.
An employer may generate or store the forms electronically only in a system with reasonable controls for integrity and against unauthorized alteration, a quality assurance program with regular evaluations, an indexing and retrieval system, and the ability to reproduce legible hardcopies. Every creation, update or correction must produce a secure permanent record of date, identity and action. A defective electronic signature makes the form improperly completed.
A qualifying organization must meet exactly one of the parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationships. A subsidiary is an entity of which a parent owns and controls more than half, or owns half and controls it, or owns fifty percent of a joint venture with equal control and veto power, or owns less than half but in fact controls it. An affiliate is one of two entities under common ownership and control. Evidence is documentary.
Where a form or an entry is completed late, the correction is made by lining through incorrect information, entering the correct information, and initialing it. An omitted certification date is filled with the current date and initialed rather than backdated. Only the employee, or a preparer or translator, may correct the employee's section. A written explanation is attached, and changes are never concealed by erasure or correction fluid.
The federal immigration statute requires document-based verification of every new hire but does not require electronic verification. Participation arises from a federal acquisition clause, from state laws enacted under the licensing exception to federal preemption, or from a voluntary memorandum of understanding. All three routes lead to the same operating rules, and an employer that joins voluntarily is held to them exactly as a mandated employer is.
Federal contracts above the acquisition threshold that run 120 days or longer and involve work in the United States carry FAR clause 52.222-54. The clause requires enrollment in the electronic verification system within 30 calendar days of award, verification of new hires within 90 calendar days of enrollment, and verification of employees assigned to the contract within 90 days of enrollment or 30 days of assignment, whichever falls later.
A final nonconfirmation means the system could not confirm work authorization after the contest period ran or the worker's efforts did not resolve the discrepancy. The employer must close the case, and may close it either by terminating the employment or by continuing to employ the worker and recording that choice. Continuing employment removes the statutory presumption of good faith and is reported to the administering agencies.
An employer must retain the verification form for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later. A worker employed less than two years produces a date three years from the first day of employment; a worker employed longer produces a date one year from the last. Records for current employees are never disposed of. Retention past the calculated date increases the population an inspection reviews.
A production consists of the retained verification forms, the supporting schedules named in the subpoena, and an index tying the two together. The forms are produced in their original medium or a permitted equivalent, the payroll and roster schedules define the population, and nothing is altered in the course of assembly. Where forms are held at another location, the employer identifies that location and arranges access.
An employer participating in electronic verification creates cases for new hires, not for existing employees. Running a current worker outside the recognized exceptions is misuse of the system and evidence of selective treatment. The principal exception belongs to federal contractors, who verify employees assigned to a covered contract and may elect to verify the entire existing domestic workforce instead of tracking assignment.
