Spotlight Online for College Employment and Recruiting Professionals, February 18, 2009

On February 13, House and Senate conferees drafted an updated economic stimulus package that does not require employment verification through the E-Verify system for contracts established with funding from the stimulus package.

While the Senate’s version of the bill had no E-Verify requirement, the House’s version would have required that all contracts paid for with stimulus funding must use E-Verify. Furthermore, it would have lengthened E-Verify for another five years.

Even though E-Verify was carved out, the final version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 does include the Sanders-Grassley H-1B amendment. The provision prevents organizations that receive financial assistance through the stimulus package from obtaining H-1B visas for two years unless they comply with recruitment and strict layoff confirmations.

These confirmations include:

• Providing evidence that they have recruited U.S. workers for the job.
• Proving that the job has already been offered to qualified U.S. workers.
• Attesting that the H-1B worker did not displace a U.S. worker for 90 days before or after filing the H-1B petition.