E-Verify is a free and simple to use Web-based system that electronically verifies the employment eligibility of newly hired employees. For everything you need to know about E-Verify, visit the official DHS web site here.

• E-Verify is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) oversees the program.

• E-Verify is a re-branding of its predecessor, the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program, which has been in existence since 1997. The Basic Pilot is being re-branded to highlight key enhancements in the program, including a new photo screening tool that helps employers to detect forged or faked immigration documents.

• E-Verify works by allowing participating employers to electronically compare employee information taken from the Form I-9 (the paper based employee eligibility verification form used for all new hires) against more than 425 million records in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) database and more than 60 million records in DHS immigration databases. Results are returned within seconds.

• E-Verify is the only official U.S. government source that provides employers in the United States with real-time data that takes the subjectivity out of verifying employment eligibility.

• The primary goals of the EEV program are to protect jobs, not lose jobs, for authorized U.S. workers and to ensure a legal workforce in the United States.

• Currently, more that 19,000 employers are enrolled in E-Verify and 1000 new employers are signing up each month. The system is currently capable of handling up to 25 million inquiries a year.

• Through E-Verify, participating employers have successfully matched 92 percent of new hires to DHS and SSA database information. Of the remaining 8 percent that were not matched, less than one percent of those employees contested the result.