We’re big Mark Twain fans, and when he says there are “Lies, damn lies and statistics,” we tend to agree.
But here’s the cold hard facts about how the first quarter returns came out for our clients:
Percentage of forms run resulting in “tentative non-confirmation” returns: 8
Percentage of “tentative non-confirmation” returns that were uncontested: 9 percent
Percentage of “tentative non-confirmation” returns that were contested and resolved positively: 94 percent
So what does it mean?
The most salient stat is the 94 percent positive resolution rate on tentative non-confirmations. It tells us that the E-Verify database still has its error problems (roughly an 8 percent error rate, based on USCIS data released in December 2007; full evaluation is here) but is doing its job pretty well.
You’re looking at a 425 million record database, and with that error rate, you’re looking at 34 million mistakes. The most common error flags that we see is name mismatch, which seems to be centered on the middle name. For instance, “Mary Elaine Smith” is listed on the Social Security Card and “Mary Smith” was entered into the E-Verify database. The result was a tentative non-confirmation.
We terminated the query and re-entered the exact same information but included the middle name and got an “SSA Employment Authorized” back. Go figure.
Tags: e-verify, error rate, i-9
