The Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will develop a “next generation” E-Verify system, to guarantee the needs of employees.
This was established by the agency as part of its improvement plans that start this year, but will continue until 2026.
The system will be based on “Proof of Concept (POC), using a human-centered design to ensure that the needs of the employees using the tools are met.
“The POC will demonstrate the capabilities of the product to reduce data duplication and give employees greater control and ownership of their employment verification process through a secure private method,” the agency said.
The system, which will be known as E-Verify Next Gen, will integrate the experiences of E-Verify and Form I-9, in addition to streamlining the verification process.
The changes will benefit both employees and employers, the agency said.
The agency today announced its goals for 2026, which include strengthening and training its staff, and expanding digital procedures.
Among the objectives of USCIS is to “improve the experience and process” of employment verification of migrant workers, which companies carry out on a voluntary basis.
Nearly a million employers currently use E-Verify and more than 2.4 million hiring sites use this system, according to government data.
The strategic plan also aims to reduce the number of pending cases and processing times and improve the efficiency of the processes with special emphasis on citizenship procedures.
It also intends to expand its workforce, ensure fiscal solvency and continue “modernization efforts with the introduction of additional options for online procedures.”
Ur M. Jaddou, USCIS Director, said in a statement today that the agency “has much more to do to achieve an immigration system built on trust, inclusion, integrity and affordability.”
USCIS has caused a problem of delays in cases after the covid-19 pandemic.
Last Tuesday a group of affected immigrants filed a lawsuit in Washington state against the agency for the delays. Some processes are taking more than 31 months when in 2018 the same process had a wait of less than 5 months, according to the plaintiff lawyers.
With information from EFE