Lawful immigration requires web-based verification of employment eligibility – and this requires mapping critical business information of the registered employer to a D-U-N-S Number.
Program Mission
U.S. law requires companies to employ only individuals who may legally work in the United States – either U.S. citizens, or foreign citizens who have the necessary authorization. This diverse workforce contributes greatly to the vibrancy and strength of our economy, but that same strength also attracts unauthorized employment.
The Challenge
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) processes over 34 million E-Verify cases per year. To meet this demand, Immigration Service Officers (ISOs) must equip themselves with comprehensive, detailed, and verified information about the entities and individuals involved in immigration processes. The agency established a system to facilitate the verification of employee eligibility to work in the US but the agency lacked a formal process to validate employers with verified data. They were not able to accurately report on size, location, and industrial classification of the companies actively using the system so the system remained exposed to potentially malicious use.
The Solution
The web-based Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE) is a tool designed to enhance USCIS’ adjudications of certain employment-based immigration petitions and applications.
VIBE uses commercially available data from an independent information provider (IIP) – Dun & Bradstreet – to validate basic information about companies or organizations petitioning to employ certain foreign nationals and to validate basic information about those companies or organizations. VIBE will provide the Immigration Service Officers with information on the petitioning company or organization’s existence and viability, including: business activities; financial standing; number of employees; relationships with any other entities, including foreign affiliates; ownership; date of establishment; and, current address.
To enable the real-time identification of employers during the registration process the agency deployed Dun & Bradstreet’s custom data matching technology through application program interfaces (APIs). By mapping each registered employer to the D-U-N-S Number unique entity identifier, information from our global business database is integrated into the agency’s system, allowing the agency to establish a verified identity for each employer. The solution also enables activity tracking and detailed business operation profiles for each employer.
Results and ROI
Since 2014, the number of E-Verify participating employers has expanded by more than 60,000 employers per year. The E-Verify service verifies employees’ data against millions of government records in near real-time – resulting in significant efficiency gains. This allows agency staff to focus on other mission-critical objectives such as the resolution of exceptions identified during the registration process, the evaluation of potential fraud, and monitoring of the system for unlawful uses. This system, powered by Dun & Bradstreet data, also provides the agency with enhanced oversight capabilities, enabling accurate program reporting and valuable trend data based on the profiles of companies using the system.
Sources
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: VIBE Questions and Answers
Department of Homeland Security: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Budget Overview; FY 2018