Human Resource Blog

IRCA Basics

What companies are covered under the Immigration Reform and Control Act?

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) is a federal act that applies to companies in states across the U.S.  The Act is in place to prohibit employers from knowingly hiring or recruiting illegal aliens that are not legally authorized to work in the U.S. because of their illegal alien status.

Not all companies and Employers are subject to the IRCA terms. Here is an overview of which companies qualify for coverage:

All public and private companies are legally required to verify the citizenship of their new employees. This applies to every employer, regardless of the size of the organization.

Employers that have less than three employees are exempt from the IRCA anti-dissemination terms.

If a company has between 3 and 15 employees, then the company may not discriminate against employees based on national origin or citizenship status.

If a company has 15 or more employees, then the company is prohibited from discriminating based on the terms of Title VII. The company may not show bias towards employees based on the citizenship of the employee.

For all employers, all full-time, part-time, seasonal and temporary employees must be verified.

There are some protected employees as well. Those include U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals, permanent aliens, and aliens admitted as refuges or granted asylum.

The individuals that are not protected include those aliens that have failed to apply for naturalization within six months of the date that they become eligible to apply, and those aliens that have not been naturalized within two years of their application.

In order to verify employees, employers need to see two forms of appropriate identification for each employee, including a license, passport, social security card, or birth certificate. The employer must also sign Form I-9, attesting that they have examined the appropriate verification documents.