June 28, 2023

Tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will publish a new information collection request (ICR) regarding the web-based E-Verify NextGen Form I-9NG that will be used to conduct a demonstration project – referred to as “E-Verify NextGen.” The goal of this demonstration project is to assess a plan to further integrate the Form I-9 (“Employment Eligibility Verification”) process with the E-Verify electronic employment eligibility confirmation process.

Under the current employment eligibility verification process, both employees and employers must enter the correct information on the Form I-9 and then transfer that information into the E-Verify system. USCIS finds this process is less secure and can result in data entry errors on the E-Verify system, leading to mismatches that may require additional actions by the employer, the employee, the Social Security Administration, and DHS, to complete an E-Verify employment eligibility verification. If an employer does not correctly follow the E-Verify steps needed to communicate the mismatch resolution processes to employees, the employees and the government may have difficulty resolving the mismatch. Additionally, employees who are not notified of their mismatch may not have an opportunity to resolve it and can face termination if their E-Verify case results in a final non-confirmation.

To address these issues and remove employers from being the key actors in resolving E-Verify mismatches, USCIS is undertaking the E-Verify NextGen demonstration project. This demonstration project is intended to streamline the employment eligibility verification and confirmation process for employers and employees by: (1) resolving E-Verify mismatches and electronically issuing an employment authorization to individuals who E-Verify finds to be work authorized, which will expedite future E-Verify checks and make an employee’s employment eligibility verification easier for future employment; (2) giving employees more direct control over their data privacy and a more direct stake in their employment eligibility verification process by creating a secure, individual account for employment eligibility verification, which will better protect personally identifiable information; (3) allowing employees to receive notification of and resolve E-Verify mismatches directly with the government without requiring the employer to be an intermediary to print and distribute forms, which USCIS finds is a more secure and private process that can speed up case resolution; and (4) removing the employer’s primary role in the mismatch resolution process, as affected employees are instead notified directly and provided the instructions required to resolve the mismatch.

Comments are due by August 28, 2023 and can be submitted here using Docket ID USCIS-2023-0011. 

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