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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has expanded itsE-Verify self-check service to another 16 state. At the same time, the program became available in Spanish. E-Verify self-check option was launched back in March and was originally available in the District of Columbia, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, and Virginia. The program allows people to log on to the government-operated E-Verify website and check whether they are authorized to accept employment in the United States, and to verify that their work-eligibility information is entered correctly in the E-Verify database. It’s the first time that part of the E-Verify employment eligibility verification program has been available to individuals who are either employed or looking for work. The E-Verify program has been in place under its current name since 2007, and today 280,000 companies and employers use it to verify that employees and job seekers have permission to work in the United States. The program is free for employers to use, and for most it’s voluntary. However, federal contractors are usually required to use the program, and several states have passed laws that require local employers to use E-Verify. The 16 new states included in E-Verify’s self-check program are California, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
