Arnall Golden Gregory LLP is pleased to provide you with the Compliance News Flash, which includes current news briefs relevant to background screening, immigration and data privacy, for the benefit and interest of our clients as well as employers and consumer reporting agencies generally.

• Now that E-Verify is again operational, employers should be working through the backlog of cases that should have been created during the period the government was shut down. This includes (i) cases for employees hired during the government shutdown and for whom a case could not be created because E-Verify was offline; and (ii) employees who had a pending Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) that could not be addressed during the government shutdown. For more information on how to address, read my blog posting here.
• When hiring a new employee, employers are required by law to complete and maintain the Form I-9. The purpose of the form is to establish each new hires’ identity and work authorization through documentation. Identifying genuine and valid documents is not always straight-forward. In the past, employers needed to rely upon guidance intended for law enforcement officers to learn more about identification documents. Now, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) publishes a guide to assist employers, known as the Handbook for Employers M-274 (“M-274”). The M-274 includes guidance on acceptable documents, prohibited practices, and how to complete different sections of the Form I-9. Examples of acceptable section 2 documents are found in Chapter 13. USCIS’s I-9 Central is another good resource for Form I-9 information. 
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) raised the maximum amount that consumer reporting agencies may charge consumers for a copy of their consumer file, from $12.00 to $12.50, to adjust for inflation. Section 612(f) of Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows consumer reporting agencies, in certain situations, to charge consumers a processing fee for a copy of their consumer file. Read the CFPB final rule here.

• On January 18th, President Trump announced his intent to nominate DocuSign CEO Keith Krach to be the undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. This position includes the responsibility as the ombudsperson for the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program. Until now, the U.S. had an acting ombudsperson, Manisha Singh. If Krach is confirmed by the Senate he will be the permanent ombudsperson between the U.S. and the EU regarding Privacy Shield. In December, the European Commission recommended that the U.S. appoint a permanent ombudsperson in order to ensure the protection of EU and U.S. citizens’ personal data. The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) published a comprehensive article on Krach’s nomination with background on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield; read it here.

• USCIS resumed premium processing on January 28th for all FY2019 H-1B cap petitions. H-1B visas are for high-skilled workers in specialty occupations. USCIS provides employers with the option to use the Premium Processing Service for expedited employment-based petitions and applications, which guarantees a 15-day processing time (note, that’s processing time and not necessarily approval). In September 2018, USCIS suspended the Premium Processing Service for cap-subject H-1B petitions. Read the full USCIS announcement here, and more on USCIS’s Premium Processing Service here.