The South Georgia Employer Committee, the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce will jointly-sponsor a seminar for employers on how businesses can determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States.

The seminar will be held Thursday, June 21, from 9-11 a.m. in the University Center’s Cyprus Room at Valdosta State University (VSU), located at 1500 North Patterson St. Registration is 8-8:30 a.m. Sponsors include SHRM members from local Chapter 140 and VSU.

United States law requires companies to employ only individuals who may legally work in the U.S. They may be either U.S. citizens or foreign citizens who have the necessary authorization to work in the U.S.

The seminar will focus on E-Verify, an internet-based system that compares information from an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility.

The E-Verify portion of the seminar will be led by Yasser Benadada of Washington, D. C., a program and management analyst with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The portion of the seminar that covers the I-9 forms will be led by Lisa Wannamaker of Atlanta, a partner with Coleman Talley, a law firm with offices in Atlanta and Valdosta. Wannamaker will be assisted by Emily Macheski-Preston, an attorney in the firm’s Valdosta office.

The seminar is designed for business owners, human resource managers, supervisors, and entrepreneurs. The cost is $15, but free to SHRM members.

For more information about the seminar, contact Wanda Roe at the Georgia Department of Labor’s (GDOL) Valdosta Career Center at (229) 333-5211 or e-mail [email protected].