Employment Eligibility Verification (E-Verify)
Purpose
E-Verify, authorized by Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), is a web-based system through which employers electronically confirm the employment eligibility of their employees.
In the E-Verify process, employers create cases based on information taken from an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. E-Verify then electronically compares that information to records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). The employer usually receives a response within a few seconds either confirming the employee’s employment eligibility or indicating that the employee needs to take further action to complete the case.
E-Verify is administered by SSA and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). USCIS facilitates compliance with U.S. immigration law by providing E-Verify program support, user support, training and outreach, and developing innovative technological solutions in employment eligibility verification.
Applicability
Federal Procurement: Applicable to all contracts that exceed the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $250,000), except those for commercially available off-the-shelf items or those that will be performed outside the U.S., or that have a period of performance of less than 120 days.
Federal Assistance: Not implemented
Flow-down: Required for all subcontracts of $3,500 or more, except those for commercial off-the-shelf items, or subcontracts that will be performed outside the U.S.
The E-Verify federal contractor rule generally requires use of E-Verify for all new employees, regardless of whether they are assigned to a federal contract. However, institutions of higher education are only required to use E-Verify for new hires and existing non-exempt employees who are working directly under a covered contract.
As a recipient of government contracts, Ohio University ensures enrollment in E-Verify is complete, the MOU is executed, and appropriate employees are verified.
Ohio University will create an E-Verify case for each existing employee assigned to a Federal contract within 30 calendar days of receipt of the contract or the employee’s assignment to the contract, whichever occurs earliest.
Ohio University will create an E-Verify case for new hires no later than the third business day after the employee starts work for pay when hired to work on a Federal contract with an E-Verify requirement.
The Principal Investigator/Project Director (PI/PD) is responsible for notifying Human Resources of any new hires or existing employees assigned to work on Federal contracts where E-Verify is required.
Procedure
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) will identify federal procurement contracts where the E-Verify requirement is applicable at the time of award. ORSP will communicate this requirement to Grants Accounting (GA) with the account setup request through LEO. GA will enter the term and condition on the award in the Grants Accounting Module. For each contract subject to E-Verify, the award letter notification from LEO will include the following statement:
This award is subject to E-Verify requirements. The Principal Investigator/Project Director (PI/PD) is responsible for notifying Human Resources of all employees/students whose salary will be charged to this project within 10 days of receipt of this award notification. PI/PD is responsible for notifying Human Resources of any existing employee/student whose salary will be charged to this project with 10 days of assignment to the contract.
ORSP will also send a separate email to the PI describing the E-Verify requirement and providing a link to the "Notice to Employee" form.
The PI/PD will e-mail a completed “Notice to Employee” to the employee and copy Human Resources for each employee/student whose salary is charged to the project within 10 days of receipt of award notice.
Human Resources will confirm whether the employee is currently E-Verified. If not, HR will complete the E-Verify for each employee, retain the record of the E-Verify, and flag the employee record. If the E-Verify results require additional action, HR will work with the employee to obtain necessary information to complete the process.
Each month Grant Accounting will compare the payroll records of individuals whose salary is charged to contracts by running the Payroll E-Verify report in Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI).
Questions
Questions can be addressed to orsp@ohio.edu.