The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced an E-Verify customer service enhancement that will allow employees to receive direct notification about Tentative Non-Confirmations (TNCs), which result from discrepancies between the data employees provide during the employment verification process and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) records. Under the current system, such mismatches are routed exclusively to employers, who must follow a series of steps to notify affected employees about resolving the issue within a designated time frame. In contrast, the newly unveiled enhancement will simultaneously notify employers and employees who voluntarily provide their email address on the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, when a TNC occurs. In addition to providing employees with an initial notification, E-Verify will also send reminder emails to these individuals if no action to resolve the TNC is taken within four days of a decision to contest the mismatch. The emails will also inform employees that a correction to their DHS or SSA records may be required.

The new enhancement is made possible by this year’s revisions to the Form I-9, which now includes fields for email addresses and telephone numbers in Section 1. Since providing an email address is voluntary, the direct notification of employees who receive TNCs will only apply to individuals who choose to indicate their email address on the form. Furthermore, employers will still be required to notify employees upon receiving a TNC.