Facility of online verification of US immigration and US visa status

United States, 24th March: Aspiring job seekers and immigrants in the District of Columbia and five other states will have the facility of checking information with regard to the US immigration and US visa online, thanks to the latest facility by US immigration.

Announcing the move, Janet Napolitano, the US Homeland Security Secretary, said that immigrants and job aspirants in Idaho, Mississippi, Washington D.C., Arizona and Colorado will be able to use the US E-Verify system.

Moreover, they will have the facility of asking the US government to edit any information found to be wrong in the database and files of the Social Security Administration or the Homeland Security Department.

Prior to this latest move, the facility was available just for the employers seeking verification of the legal information regarding the work status of the workers.

The program is run by the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) and the DHS (Department of Homeland Services).

It is an extension of the US E-Verify system, an electronic process that is used by nearly all of the 250,000 US companies for making sure that the new workers in the US are eligible to work here and have not come to the US illegally or through foul means, the US DHS maintains.

After the initial launch of the self-check program in five states, the US government is expected to expand such program in all the US states in the coming period of next one year or so.

According to director of USCIS, Alejandro Mayorkas, aspiring or potential employees making use of Self Check can get to know about any problems well before time and work towards clearing them up.

Any new employees found to be ineligible for working in the US through the US E-Verify system are provided eight business days for resolving the issue. As per the official estimates by US immigration officials, nearly 850,000 to around 1 million online queries are expected in the first year of the online services.

The identity of the users of ‘Self Check’ program are validated by Anakam Inc. a provider of software services based in San Diego, through checking of financial and demographic data. US E-Verify is a simple, smart and a handy tool that enables the US DHS to work with employers in the US for maintaining legal employees.

It is a voluntary, fast and a secure service that processes nearly 8.7 million queries in the year 2009 from employers for verifying the validity of the social security and immigration documents.