Recently, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) issued a section-by-section analysis of the Visa Efficiency and E-Verify Extension Act of 2008. In summary this bill recaptures unused family based and employment based visas from fiscal years 1992 through 2007 and allows unused family and employment based visas in future years to automatically “roll over” to the next fiscal year. Although the maximum number of visas issued is mandated by law, the actual number of visas issued in a given year can be significantly lower based on processing or other bureaucratic delays. In order to ensure that all authorized visas are actually used, the Act permits calculation of the final number of visas available that takes into account unused visas from past years.  Additionally, the bill reauthorizes the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) electronic employment eligibility verification program known as “E-Verify.” The Act provides a 5 year extension of the voluntary program and it also includes provisions that ensure that DHS provide timely reimbursements to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for the resources utilized to maintain the E-Verify program.

DHS Secretary Chertoff Announces that USCIS will begin issuing Employment Authorization Documents with a 2 year validity period for individuals with green card applications pending.

On June 9, 2008, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced at his State of Immigration Address that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be extending the validity period of the employment authorization documents (EAD) that are issued to individuals who applications for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident status (“green card”) pending.

Currently, such individuals are granted EADs with a maximum validity of one year. According to Secretary Chertoff, beginning later in June 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will start issuing EADs with a validity period of two years for individuals who have adjustment of status applications filed that are expected to be pending for more than one year.

“Less than one percent of all work-authorized employees receive a tentative non-confirmation through E-Verify,” said USCIS Acting Director Jonathan Scharfen. “While this is a very small percentage, we believe every employee who is authorized to work in the United States should be instantly authorized by the program. We’re confident that the enhancements we’re launching today will help us achieve that goal.”

The E-Verify system will include naturalization data, which will help instantly confirm the citizenship status of naturalized U.S. citizens hired by E-Verify employers. Naturalized citizens who have not yet updated their records with the Social Security Administration (SSA) are the largest category of work-authorized persons who initially face an SSA mismatch in E-Verify.

E-Verify also will now include real time arrival data from the Integrated Border Inspection System. This additional data source will reduce the number of immigration status related mismatches for newly arriving workers who have entered the country legally.

More than 64,000 employers participate in E-Verify with approximately 1,000 new enrollments weekly. The Web-based system allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees. USCIS operates the program in partnership with SSA.

A naturalized citizen who receives a citizenship mismatch with SSA can call USCIS directly to resolve the issue (in addition to the option of resolving the mismatch in person at any SSA field office.)

Additional details on the program are available on the E-Verify Web site at www.uscis.gov/e-verify.