If you look closely at the upper right-hand corner of the Form I-9, you’ll see it’s supposed to expire today. What should you do now?

An easy answer: nothing.

The current form lists an expiration date of 6/30/09, but last week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the form will remain valid after today.

On June 26, USCIS asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approved continued use of the current version. While the request is pending, the form will not expire, despite the date listed at the top of the first page.

When the extension is approved — and a new expiration date is set — USCIS will update the form.

But for now, just keep using the form on the agency’s Web site, dated “Rev. 02/02/09″ at the bottom of each page and the June 30 expiration date at the top.

Note: When the form is updated, it’s unlikely USCIS will make any substantial changes, just add the new dates.

In June 2008, President Bush issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to verify new hires and existing employees assigned to government contracts through E-Verify. The rule was scheduled to take effect in January — until a coalition led by the Chamber of Commerce sued.

The feds pushed the effective date back to Feb. 20.  Then the Obama administration extended the delay to May 21 — and has just pushed the date back yet again to give the new administration time to review the rule. It’s now set to take effect June 30.

In the meantime, the Chamber of Commerce’s suit is still pending. We’ll keep you posted on how that turns out.

If it’s ever enacted, the rule will apply to companies with contracts lasting more than 120 days, valued at more than $120,000 and involving work done in the United States.

Those companies not already using E-Verify will have to:

• enroll in the program within 30 days of being awarded the contract
• start verifying all new hires within 90 days of enrollment
• verify existing employees who are assigned to work on the contract, and
• continue using E-Verify for the duration of the contract.

Based on how many times the system has been used so far this year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) predicts E-Verify will be used to run more than 17 million queries in 2009. That would be an increase of 167% over last year.

If the projection is accurate, it would mean one out of every eight employees hired this year will be verified through E-Verify.

The USCIS didn’t explain why the numbers appear to be jumping so sharply, but the system has gotten a lot of use so far in 2009.

In January, the Department of Homeland Security announced that more than 100,000 employers had signed up for E-Verify. By the middle of February, another 10,000 had been added to the list.

Has your company used E-Verify? If not, do you ever plan on starting? Let us know in the comments section below.

The first was a requirement that all companies receiving federal bailout money use the system to verify their employees and new hires.

Supporters of the provision said it would prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to create jobs filled by illegal immigrants.

Earlier versions of the bill also included a five-year extension of the funding for E-Verify. The program is set to expire on March 6 unless Congress votes to extend it.

Though that provision was dropped from the stimulus bill, the program’s supporters will most likely push to attach an extension to other pieces of legislation. We’ll keep you posted.

A rule issued by the federal government requiring many employers to use the E-Verify employment verification system is scheduled to take effect on January 15. But a pending lawsuit claims the rule is against the law.

The rule, issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will require most employers with federal contracts to use E-Verify for new hires, as well as current employees assigned to work on new contracts.

Covered employees included those with contracts valued at more than $120,000, lasting longer than 120 days and involving work done in the U.S.

A coalition of business groups, including the Society for Human Resource Management and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit at the end of last month to block the regulation. They claim E-Verify was enacted as a strictly voluntary program, and that requiring companies to use it violates the law Congress passed to authorize it.

We’ll keep you posted on the outcome of the suit. For now, though, the rule’s effective date has been pushed back to Feb. 20.

State mandates

E-Verify is already mandatory for some or all employers in 11 states:  Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Utah.

The laws vary from state to state: Some only apply to companies that contract with the state government, while the mandates in Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina apply to all companies.

Arizona’s rule was recently challenged by businesses and immigration advocacy groups, but it was upheld in court.

Will E-Verify last?

Meanwhile, the future of the E-Verify program itself is uncertain.

Funding was set to expire last November, before Congress extended it until March 6. That was after a five-year extension was passed by a wide margin in the House of Representatives but failed to make it through the Senate.

President-elect Obama has expressed support for E-Verify. We’ll keep you posted on whether that translates into another extension for the program.

The creators of the site, www.wehirealiens.com, say the page is designed to put pressure on employers, because they are the “magnet drawing illegal aliens” to the U.S. Users submit their comments to site, which posts them anonymously and allows viewers to search through the database of the allegedly illegal employers.

The problem for companies, though, is that many of the comments aren’t based on solid evidence.

Some of them cite actual investigations by federal authorities, but others range from “I was a manager there so I know they hire illegal aliens” to “Most workers are Hispanic and do not speak English.”

Companies who’ve been affected say the site’s administrators do not verify if any legal violations have occurred and have refused requests to remove comments, the Dallas Morning News reports.

The page claims the accusations are forwarded to the FBI, Social Security Administration and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office, but it’s not clear if the feds have ever used that information to begin an investigation.

The company, Howard Industries, was the target of the largest immigration raid at a single location in U.S. history — despite using E-Verify for new hires, as mandated by state law.

How could so many undocumented workers have been hired? One big explanation could be the timing. The investigation started two years ago, before the company was using E-Verify.

Also to blame might be the fact that E-Verify doesn’t do much to prevent identity theft. If an undocumented employee uses another person’s name and social security number, the system won’t tell employers that — it only matches names and SSNs.

E-Verify is set to expire in November, unless Congress approves an extension. The House of Representatives passed a bill to extend the program for five more years, but the Senate has yet to take action.

Experts say situations like Howard’s are likely to up the ante in the debate on whether to scrap it, keep it as a voluntary or make it mandatory for employers. We’ll keep you posted.

The latest state to pass a law requiring employers to use E-Verify is South Carolina. The new rule gives companies a choice: participate in the program and use the system to verify new hire eligibility, or only hire employees with valid driver’s licenses or state ID cards.

Employers with 100 or more employees must comply by July 1, 2009. Other companies have until July 1, 2010.

The law also imposes stricter penalties on employers that hire unauthorized workers, ranging from a $100 fine to permanent revocation of the license to employ workers in South Carolina.

The state joins others — such as Missouri, Arizona and Mississippi — that require all companies to use E-Verify.