We anticipated E-Verify was not likely to go away when the voluntary Federal program became mandated for employers in some States last year, including Arizona, where SmartSearch supports a significant number of clients subject to the E-Verification of candidates’ eligibility to work in the United States.

We spent about six months to code and get Certified by the Federal government. We had to pass a number of tests and complete a lengthy validation process in order for our application to be compliant with the E-Verify program and better serve our clients.

The integration was completed and rolled out in August of 2008.

SmartSearch ATS allows employers to electronically verify a new employee’s name, date of birth, and social security number, along with validating immigration information for non-citizens, against Federal database records in order to verify an individual’s identity and employment eligibility.

The SmartSearch integration with the E-Verify system further streamlined the I-9 compliance process, and provided results in seconds. This functionality helps employers maintain a legal workforce, improves the accuracy of wage and tax reporting, and virtually eliminates Social Security mismatches.

Several other applicant tracking systems have followed suit and integrated with E-Verify. These ATS vendors provide improved ability for employers to avoid penalties and fines for non-compliance with State law and possible future legislation.

In the last nine months, we’ve seen an increasing number of clients using the E-verify integration tools – and many clients are incorporating I-9 and E-Verify data collection from candidates on their Career Center/employment pages as well.

We expect this trend will continue to pick up steam.