The USCIS reports that for companies using the E-Verify service, 98.8 percent of work-authorized employees are automatically confirmed instantly or within 24 hours, requiring no further employee or employer action. Users gave E-Verify a score of 86 out of 100 on the 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey. The average score for all government agencies was 67.

As was recently reported by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 500,000 companies now use E-Verify, the free online service that allows United States employers to confirm their new employees' eligibility to work.

According to the USCIS, employers who use E-Verify often receive a response on an employee's work authorization status within seconds.

"Since it was established, E-Verify has experienced exponential growth, increased accuracy and high customer-satisfaction ratings," said Lori Scialabba, Acting Director of USCIS. "Participation in E-Verify is largely voluntary, so the fact that half a million companies have signed up demonstrates significant confidence in the program. Employers using E-Verify find it helps them maintain a legal workforce in a quick, secure and accurate way."

USCIS has worked over the years to strengthen the system's integrity. These efforts have led to E-Verify agreements with select states' departments of motor vehicles to ensure the authenticity of driver's licenses that employees use as identity documents; the introduction of Self Check, which allows workers to look up their own employment eligibility status and correct their records before they seek employment; and a program that combats identity fraud by locking Social Security numbers suspected of being misused for employment eligibility verification.

E-Verify has experienced significant growth since its establishment in 1996. Annual enrollments increased from 11,474 in fiscal year 1996 to 111,671 in fiscal year 2012. During 2013, employers used E-Verify more than 25 million times.