TCS Achieves 100% Digital I-9 Compliance with emSigner

eMudhra takes the complexity out of managing, signing, and storing Employment Eligibility Verification Forms (I-9) for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT company operating in the US.

The current process of completing Section 1 and Section 2 of the Form I-9 was very complicated, paper-intensive, and time-consuming. To complete Section 1, the newly hired employee had to take a printout of the I-9 form, manually fill in all the details, attest all the supporting documents, and physically add a signature to all pages of the I-9 form as well as the supporting documents. To make matters worse, they had to complete the entire process within the first day of joining the new job. The same was the case with the HR department of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). They only had three days to thoroughly verify all the details presented by the employee, manually fill Section 2 of the I-9 form as per the details provided by the employee, and add signatures to all the pages of the form to validate their authenticity. Also, the fact that they had to deploy additional resources to scan and upload documents into the electronic employment confirmation system — E-Verify — operated by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), was not helping the cause.

Business Scenario

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) wanted to digitalize the entire process of filling, signing, and management of the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9), including collecting, signing, and storing of all the supporting documents that establish both identity and employment eligibility in the country.

eMudhra Solution

Leveraging their expertise and experience, eMudhra devised a two-step process to help Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) achieve their objective. The first part involved setting up an Enterprise CA for issuing US eSign Act-compliant e-signatures when a Create or Generate Signature request is raised by the newly hired employee or the HR department of the company. eMudhra used their proprietary PKI solution, emCA, for this process and stored all the generated e-signatures in a secure database for later use.

The second part involved digitalizing the entire workflow and including provisions to sign documents using the electronic signatures generated in the above process. emSigner, eMudhra’s new-age paperless solution, met this need to the tee. Using this innovative platform, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was able to seamlessly digitize all the documents and enable both the newly-hired employees and the HR team to add legally valid e-signatures and timestamp documents effortlessly. The same platform was used for the secure storage and management of I-9 forms of all the employees, in accordance with USCIS norms.

The Solution Included the Following Broad Modules:

Certificate Lifecycle Management Module 

• Certificate Issuance – To manage the issuance and revocation of e-signatures
• Certificate Download – For downloading e-signatures from the Enterprise CA as a soft token
• Certificate Registration – To allow the customer to register their e-signature on the client application

emSigner – On-premise digital signature-enabled workflow management solution for defining paperless workflows

Timestamping Server – Provides a reliable time source for e-signatures

Hardware Security Module – FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified physical computing device that safeguards and manages digital keys for strong authentication and provides cryptographic processing

Solution Architecture

Implementation Process

• Deploy an Enterprise CA for issuing legally valid electronic signatures
• Digitize all the workflows and include provisions to electronically sign documents
• Securely store and manage all the I-9 forms

Value Add to Customer

• Seamlessly issue legally valid e-signatures to all concerned parties
• Completely eliminate the paper trail and streamline workflow
• Allow all concerned parties to add legally compliant signatures with the click of a button
• Increase compliance by including provisions to securely store and manage all the digitized I-9 forms