labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Under the new South Carolina Immigration law, employers must take a number of measures to ensure that the employees they are hiring may legally work in the U.S.

These steps include:

• Complying with all federal I-9 requirements
• Verifying the legal status of employees

The state recommends that employers use E-Verify, a free federal program, to verify the employee’s identity online in a few minutes.

This law goes into effect on July 1, 2009 for private employers with 100 or more employees. Private employers with fewer than 100 employees have until July 1, 2010 to comply.

E-Verify is a program available through the Department of Homeland Security. It detects fraudulent documents by comparing the employee’s information, including date of birth, social security number and gender, with a nationwide database and social security records and immigration documents.

A new feature of E-Verify will also permit the system to compare the photos on immigration documents with those in the DHS records. This will make it more difficult for an employee to counterfeit immigration documents such as green cards.

According to the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, employers can also verify identity by making sure that the employee has a South Carolina driver’s license or I.D. card. A driver’s license or I.D. card from another state with requirements as strict as those in South Carolina is also acceptable. The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles has determined that drivers’ licenses or identification cards issued by Alaska, Arizona, (more…)

The Department of Homeland Security recently outlined new restrictions for employers who receive stimulus finds to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.

The most recent regulations were announced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on March 20, 2009.

Employers who receive TARP funds will need to provide additional statements to the U.S. Department of Labor showing that they have made good-faith attempts to fill the positions with qualified American workers. In addition, the employers are not permitted to pay the foreign workers less than American workers with the same skills.

The new regulations are generated under the Employ American Workers Act or EAWA, a portion of the ARRA signed on February 17, 2009. The new provisions are in effect only until February 17, 2011 (unless extended by law.)

H-1B visas are granted to highly-skilled, temporary foreign workers for a maximum of 6 years. The visas are granted to just 65,000 workers per year, although an additional 20,000 visas are granted to workers with a master’s degree or equivalent. Many of the H-1B visas are granted to workers in (more…)