Feedback From E-Verify Listens Spurs USCIS to Revise E-Verify Posters

On December 2, 2013 USCIS published revised versions of its E-Verify Participation and Right to Work posters. The revisions came after USCIS received feedback on the posters on its E-Verify Listens website. USCIS explains the purpose of the revisions as to require less ink to print.

The release of these revised posters do not change the fact that it is mandatory for all E-Verify employers to display the E-Verify Participation and Right to Work posters. Each E-Verify employer must display both posters, and both are available in English and Spanish.

Previous versions are still acceptable; this is true for already established E-Verify employers as well as newly enrolled employers. Any E-Verify employer who displays the previous versions is still in full compliance. However, an employer is free to print and post the revised versions.

The revisions were spurred by public feedback given on E-Verify Listens. E-Verify Listens is a USCIS-run website that functions as a public forum, providing the public including U.S. employers and employees the opportunity to discuss E-Verify products and services with each other and to inform USCIS of how it might improve the E-Verify experience.

E-Verify Listens is a great example of the way USCIS actively tries to cooperate with the private sector and improve the E-Verify program, making it more practical and user-friendly. This practice is particularly helpful as USCIS incorporates increasingly advanced technology in its processes and procedures, including E-Verify and others.

For example, E-Verify is currently soliciting feedback on processing E-Verify cases on mobile devices. USCIS lists specific questions to help keep feedback useful. These questions include:

(1) How can we make E-Verify more mobile friendly?
(2) Why would you use an E-Verify Mobile App?
(3) What features would you like to see in an E-Verify Mobile App?
(4) What concerns might you have about using an E-Verify Mobile App?
(5) How would you access an E-Verify Mobile App – smartphone or tablet?
(6) What functionality from the full service E-Verify website would be a priority for you on a mobile app?

On E-Verify Listens, the public also has the option to submit unsolicited new ideas and open threads for public discussions on E-Verify related topics.

While USCIS offers U.S. employers and employees other ways to provide feedback on other USCIS matters, websites comparable to E-Verify Listens for other matters would be extremely helpful. An obvious example is if there was such an I-9 Listens website. Other helpful ones may be PERM Listens and I-140 Listens. Such open and user-friendly avenues for feedback on these and other USCIS matters would surely be welcomed and utilized by the public. Unfortunately, revising the processes of these other matters may be more complicated because they are older and more engrained in federal laws and regulations. Nonetheless, the USCIS should be encouraged by the feedback given on E-Verify Listens and continue to develop ways to hear from U.S. companies and individuals that utilize its services.

For more information on the poster revisions, please see USCIS’s email to AILA “Revised Posters Use Less Ink.”