The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a Supplemental Final Rule (SFR) addressing procedures employers may follow when they receive either a no-match letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) (which states that there is a discrepancy between the Social Security Number (SSN) reported for the employee and the SSA's records) or a notice of suspect document from DHS. The SFR makes no substantive changes to the provisions of the Final Rule published by DHS in August 2007. Instead the SFR addresses the issues raised by a federal court in California, which previously enjoined enforcement of the August 2007 Final Rule. The rule has not gone into effect yet and will not become effective until the court lifts the injunction. For now, employers who receive no-match letters must continue to correct their records and ask employees to correct the problem where applicable, within a reasonable time. Thus, the status quo continues without specific time periods or a safe harbor for employers to deal with no-match letters.

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