U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced an E-Verify effort to combat identity fraud by identifying and deterring fraudulent use of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) for employment eligibility verification.
USCIS explained that an employer, for example, may enter information into E-Verify that appears valid, such as a matching name, date of birth, and SSN, but that was in fact stolen, borrowed, or purchased from another individual.
The agency said the new safeguard enables USCIS to lock an SSN that appears to have been misused.
USCIS said this implements standards that have proven effective in protecting individual identity in other industries. As with a credit card company that can lock a card that appears to have been stolen, USCIS may now lock SSNs in E-Verify that appear to have been used fraudulently. USCIS said it will use a combination of algorithms, detection reports, and analysis to identify patterns of fraudulent SSN use and then lock the number in E-Verify.
If an employee attempts to use a locked SSN, E-Verify will generate a “Tentative Nonconfirmation” (TNC). The employee receiving the TNC may contest the finding at a local Social Security Administration (SSA) field office. If an SSA field officer confirms that the employee’s identity correctly matches the SSN, the TNC will be converted to “Employment Authorized” status in E-Verify.
Employer enrollment in E-Verify has more than doubled since January 2009, with more than 470,000 participating employers representing more than 1.4 million hiring sites. Approximately 1,500 new employers enroll each week. In fiscal year (FY) 2013, E-Verify was used to authorize workers in the U.S. more than 25 million times, representing a nearly 20 percent increase from FY 2012.
Office of Foreign Labor
Certification deals with backlogs
The Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has experienced backlogs as a result of the cessation of its electronic systems due to the recent federal government shutdown. OFLC noted that this further resulted in a backlog of documents submitted to OFLC during that period by mail, hand-delivery, or email. As a result, OFLC implemented the following temporary changes:
1.Submissions mailed, couriered, or emailed to OFLC and received between October 1 and October 18:
Submissions are applications that the National Processing Centers (Chicago, Atlanta, or Prevailing Wage Center) could not receive electronically through the iCERT system during the shutdown, and were mailed, delivered by private courier (Federal Express, etc.) or emailed to OFLC. These include Applications for Permanent Employment Certification (PERM, ETA 9089), Applications for Temporary Employment Certification (H-2B, H-2A ETA 9142), and Applications for Prevailing Wage Determinations (ETA 9141).
Because of the backlog in submissions that were mailed, delivered or emailed to OFLC for shutdown-related reasons or otherwise, all submissions received by OFLC between October 1 and October 18 were considered received on October 18. For example, a PERM application mailed to the Atlanta National Processing Center on October 5 was given a receipt date of October 18, 2013. If an October 18 receipt date on an application would have otherwise rendered out-of-date the recruitment or prevailing wage determination used for the application, the application was deemed to have been timely filed for the purpose of the recruitment or the prevailing wage determination.
2. PERM and H-2B submissions with time-sensitive recruitment or prevailing wage determinations NOT mailed or delivered to OFLC during the shutdown:
Employers that decided not to mail or deliver PERM or H-2B submissions to OFLC because of the shutdown may now have recruitment or prevailing wage determinations that are out-of-date because of the shutdown-related delay. These employers were asked to mail or file electronically in PERM or iCERT (see note below about iCERT filing) submissions for receipt by November 14, 2013.
This accommodation applied only to PERM and H-2B applications that had timely recruitment or prevailing wage determinations during the shutdown period and were later unsuitable for filing due to expired recruitment or prevailing wage determinations.
Employers with time-sensitive recruitment or prevailing wage determinations who delayed their filings until after October 18, 2013, were deemed to have been timely filed for the purpose of the recruitment or the prevailing wage determination.
For mailed submissions, employers were asked to include a pink sheet of paper as a cover page for the submission and label that cover sheet as a “shutdown pre-empted submission” so that it would be properly handled in OFLC mailrooms.
Note for PERM and H-2B iCERT filers: As with PERM and H-2B submissions with out-of-date recruitment or prevailing wage determinations that are mailed, no application with expired recruitment or expired prevailing wage determinations was accepted after November 14, 2013.
3. Employer responses to OFLC directives that were due between October 1 and October 18, 2013, but were NOT transmitted to OFLC:
In the H-2A, H-2B and PERM programs, some employers may have been directed by OFLC to respond by a deadline that occurred from October 1, 2013, to October 18, 2013. Responses that were due to the OFLC during this period but not transmitted had their due dates extended to November 14, 2013. The deadline extension applied to the following documents in the following programs:
For Prevailing Wage Determinations:
• Responses to Requests For Information
In H-2A and H-2B:
• Responses to Notices of Deficiencies or Requests for Further Information
• Audit Responses
• Responses to Notices of Intent to Debar
In PERM:
• Responses to information requests related to employer sponsorship
• Audit/AAIR responses
• Responses to Requests For Information
• Responses to requests for review of advertisements in supervised recruitment
• Responses to supervised recruitment (Recruitment Instructions Letters)
• Responses to Notices of Intent to Revoke or to Debar
4. Employer responses to OFLC directives that were due between October 1 and October 18, 2013, and were transmitted to OFLC during that period:
Responses to OFLC directives in the H-2A, H-2B and PERM programs (those noted in no. 3 above) that were due between October 1 and October 18, 2013, and were transmitted via mail, hand-delivery or email during that time were considered received on October 18 and timely.
If an applicant transmitted an application or response by mail, hand-delivery, or email between October 1 and October 18, 2013, and the employer had not received notice that the transmission was undeliverable, the employer should not re-submit it.
Employers were reminded that if they viewed a PERM application as erroneously denied during that period based on out-of-date recruitment, they could submit the request for reconsideration to the attention of the government error queue.
None of the temporary procedures established in this notice applied to appeals to the BALCA. Employers were encouraged to contact the BALCA for information related to deadlines applicable to appeals.
Visa office forecasts changes in some employment cut-off dates
The Department of State’s Visa Office has projected changes in some employment cut-off dates. The December 2013 Visa Bulletin notes that the India employment second and third preference category cut-off dates advanced very rapidly at the end of fiscal year 2013.
Those movements were based on the availability of thousands of “otherwise unused” numbers that could be made available without regard to the preference per-country annual limits. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in applicant demand, the Visa Bulletin notes. Consequently, the Visa Office has retrogressed those cut-off dates for December “in an effort to hold number use within the numerical limits.”
In the coming months, the Visa Office expects the employment first preference category to remain Current, and the employment second preference worldwide category to remain Current. The employment second preference category for China is expected to move forward three to five weeks. No forward movement is expected in the India second preference category.
The worldwide employment third preference category cut-off date has advanced extremely rapidly during the past seven months “to generate new demand,” the Visa Bulletin states. As the rate of applicants whose cases are finalized increases, it could have a significant effect on the cut-off date. Rapid forward movement of this cut-off date “should not be expected to continue beyond February,” the Visa Bulletin notes.
China’s and Mexico’s employment third preference cut-off dates are expected to remain at the worldwide date. India should see no forward movement and the Philippines is expected to move forward three to six weeks.
The employment fourth and fifth preference cut-off dates are expected to remain Current. The Visa Office noted that these projections are “what is likely to happen during each of the next few months based on current applicant demand patterns.” However, the Visa Office cautioned that these trends are not guaranteed and corrective action could be required at some point to maintain number use within the applicable annual limits. Unless indicated, the Visa Office said that those categories with a Current projection in the December Visa Bulletin “will remain so for the foreseeable future.”
The Visa Bulletin for December 2013 is available at http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_6211.html.
Cyrus D. Mehta
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