E-Verify overview
E-Verify is a U.S. federal program that confirms the eligibility of employees to work in the country. This is done electronically, by comparing the information submitted in Sections 1 and 2 of the I-9 Form against records from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. [1]
This verification of immigration and work authorization status provides an additional layer of confidence for employers to know that their employees are eligible to work in the United States, meeting federal legal requirements.
Participation in the E-Verify program is voluntary for most businesses. There is one exception where it is required under federal law: it’s mandatory to participate if you have a Federal contract or subcontract [2] (unless you meet an exemption outlined here).
In addition, you may be required to participate in E-Verify under state law [3]:
State Mandates for E-Verify [4]:
State Mandates for E-Verify [4]:
Alabama: Requires all employers to user E-Verify (as of April 2012)
Arizona: Requires all employers to use E-Verify (as of 2016)
Colorado: Required for contractors who engage in public contracts for services with a state agency of political subdivision (as of 2008)
Florida: Required for all state agencies (as of 2011)
Georgia: Required for all public employers, for all private employers with 11 or more employees, and for contractors who perform services with the state for a public employer.
Idaho: Required for all state agencies and contractors if they want to continue receiving economic stimulus benefits (as of 2009)
Indiana: Required for all state agencies, political subdivisions, and any companies who have a public contract. Not required for private employers, but highly encouraged, as those who don’t use it may fail to quality for certain state tax benefits.
Louisiana: Required for all state contractors and their subcontractors.
Minnesota: Required for contractors and vendors who engage in state contracts for services of $50,000 or more. One exemption is for contracts by the State Board of Investment - they are excluded from this mandate.
Mississippi: Required for all public and private employers (as of 2011)
Missouri: Required for all public employers, and any businesses with state contracts or grants of $5,000 or more.
Nebraska: Required for all public contractors, and any private employers who do state contract work or receive state economic incentives.
North Carolina: Required for counties, cities, and private employers with 25 or more employees (excluding seasonal temporary employees who work for 90 days or less during a 12 month period). Also required for state & county agencies, including universities and community colleges, and contractors who work with state contracts.
Oklahoma: Required for all public employers, contractors, and subcontractors.
Pennsylvania: Required for all public works contractors & subcontractors (as of 2013)
South Carolina: Required for all employers (as of 2010)
Tennessee: Required for all private employers with 50 or more employees (as of 2017)
Texas: Required for all state agencies and institutes of higher education (as of 2015)
Utah: Required for all public employers and their contractors/subcontractors who perform services in the state, as well as private employers with 15 or more employees.
Note: this may allow for use of the Social Security Number Verification Service in place of E-Verify
Virginia: Required for all state agencies (as of 2012) and any employer with more than 50 employees for the past 12 months who enter into a $50,000+ contract with any state agency (as of 2013).
E-Verify Process in Fountain I-9 Center
If your company uses the E-Verify program, then a new case must be created in the E-Verify system every time a new I-9 form is completed. This must be done within three business days of the employee’s start date.
The Fountain I-9 center makes this process easy by automatically creating and submitting a new E-Verify case after Section 2 is completed - no action needed on your part!
After a case has been submitted, you can view the status of the case from directly within Fountain. To do so, go to:
Onboard in the sidebar > I-9 Forms
View the Status column in the worker table, which reflects real-time updates of the case status from E-Verify
Hint: Easily apply a Filter by clicking Filters in the top right of the table to focus on the case statuses you’re most interested in:
To see more details about a case status, click the Manage button in any row, and then click on Take Action on E-Verify to see a more detailed view of each worker’s case:
E-Verify Statuses
There are several statuses that an E-Verify case can be in. Here’s a handy guide to all of them, and what steps you need to take for each one:
Employment Authorization Confirmed ✅
Meaning: This means that E-Verify has confirmed that the employee is authorized to work in the United States.
More specifically, the information submitted on the I-9 form matches records from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
This is the most common case result status, and it usually comes back within seconds of a case being submitted.
Next steps: None! E-Verify will automatically close this case for you, and your employee is legally eligible to continue working.
E-Verify Needs More Time (aka Manual Review) ⏳
Meaning: E-Verify needs additional time to verify employment eligibility. This happens if eligibility cannot be confirmed instantly, requiring manual review of government records.
Next Steps: None. Continue monitoring the progress of this case in the I-9 Center - most cases in this status are updated within 24 hours.
Employer Action Required 🔎
Meaning: E-Verify has reviewed the case, and requires additional action or follow-up from you, the employer, before the case can be finalized.
Next Steps: This differs depending on the action that E-Verify needs you to take, but it will be outlined in the E-Verify case review. Common statuses of this type:
1). Photo Match Required:
Meaning: E-Verify requires a manual review from you, the employer, of a photo displayed in E-Verify with a photo from the employee’s legal document to ensure that they match.
This happens when an employee presents any of the following document types for their Section 1 form, then E-Verify Photo Matching will be triggered when the employer creates the E-Verify case:
Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551) (aka a ‘Green Card’)
Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766)
U.S. Passport
U.S. Passport card
If the provided document doesn’t have a photo, though, then E-Verify Photo Matching will be skipped.
Next Steps: Compare the two photos to verify that they match. Then do one of the following:
If they do match, great! Click the Yes, the photos match button to let E-Verify know that they can continue reviewing the case.
If the photos do not match, then select the No, the photos do not match button. This will update the case to a status of Action Required - Scan and Upload, which requires you to attach and submit copies of the front and back of the employee’s document electronically.
For passports, this means submitting the photo page and the barcode page
After submitting this, E-Verify will continue reviewing the case
Note: If E-Verify displays no photo, or an image of something other than a person (such as a document), then select the No photo displayed option. This will skip the Photo Matching step, and lets E-Verify know to continue processing the case.
2). Unconfirmed Data:
Meaning: E-Verify needs confirmation of some of the information provided in the I-9 form.
Next Steps: Review the information provided and determine if it’s correct, or if changes are needed. From there, you can:
Indicate that no changes are needed if all information is correct, or
If something was entered incorrectly, make changes in the fields directly
After that, click Confirm and Send to E-Verify for continued review.
3). Close Case and Resubmit
Meaning: The Social Security Administration or Department of Homeland Security is unable to process this case and confirm employment eligibility. This can happen if an employee’s U.S. passport, passport card, or driver’s license information is incorrect.
Next Steps: None! When the I-9 Center receives a case in this status, it will automatically close the current case and resubmit a new one on your behalf. Keep an eye on the status of the new case in the I-9 Center worker table.
Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) [5]
Meaning: The information provided in the I-9 form does not match records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and/or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A mismatch can happen with one of those organizations, or in both (known as a dual mismatch).
This doesn’t mean that the employee is not authorized to work in the United States, just that follow up action is required for the government to make that confirmation.
An SSA mismatch can occur if:
An SSA mismatch can occur if:
The employee’s citizenship or immigration status was not updated with SSA.
The employee did not report your name change to SSA.
The employee’s name, Social Security number, or date of birth is incorrect in SSA records.
The employee’s information was entered incorrectly.
The employee’s SSA records contain another type of mismatch.
A DHS mismatch can occur if:
A DHS mismatch can occur if:
The employee’s name, Alien Registration Number (A-Number or USCIS number), Form I-94 (Arrival-Departure Record) number, and/or foreign passport number differ from those in DHS records.
The employee’s U.S. passport, passport card, driver’s license, foreign passport, or state ID card information could not be verified.
The employee’s information was not updated in DHS records.
The employee’s citizenship or immigration status changed.
The employee’s record contains another type of error.
The employee’s information was entered incorrectly.
Next steps:
Follow-up action is required within 10 federal government working days (Monday-Friday, federal holidays excluded) after a mismatch is issued.
When a tentative nonconfirmation occurs, you will receive a Further Action Notice document. This document identifies:
Which agency - DHS, SSA, or both - found the mismatch
Where the mismatch occurred in the submitted I-9 form
To start processing the tentative nonconfirmation [6]:
Notify the employee of the mismatch result and give them a copy of the Further Action Notice
Set aside time to privately review the Further Action Notice with the employee
Identify if the information present in the Further Action Notice is correct
In the I-9 Center, select one of the following responses, based on the results of step #3:
My Form I-9 is Correct (meaning, there are no errors)
My personal information is incorrect (name, social security number, or date of birth)
My work authorization document number is incorrect (A-Number/USCIS number, Form I-94 number, or foreign passport number)
My supporting documentation information is incorrect (such as your passport number or driver’s license information)
For choices B, C, or D, since there was incorrectly information, you will close the current case with a reason of The Information Entered Was Not Correct and then submit a new I-9 form with the correct information
For choice A, if there are no errors, the employee then needs to decide if they want to take action on the tentative nonconfirmation or not.
The employee needs to let you know their decision within 10 federal government working days, otherwise their case will be closed [7].
Employee Option A: Take Action
If the employee chooses to take action to resolve the mismatch, they have 8 federal government working days to do one of the following:
➡️ If the DHS flagged the mismatch, then the employee needs to call DHS at 888-897-7781. They need to provide the following:
The E-Verify case number, which can be found on their Further Action Notice, and
Their naturalization certificate number or Alien Number (A-Number)
➡️ If the SSA flagged the mismatch, then the employee needs to visit an SSA field office (find locations here) to begin resolving the mismatch.
The employee will need to bring their Further Action Notice with to the field office
Your next steps: If your employee chooses to take action, then you need to do the following:
Through the I-9 Center, refer the case to DHS or SSA
This will update the case status to Case Referred to SSA/DHS
This will also generate a Referral Date Confirmation document from E-Verify, which provides the date that the employee must complete their follow-up steps by.
Once the Referral Date Confirmation has been generated, send it to the employee
Note: This document is in English by default, but can be downloaded & printed in Spanish if needed
If E-verify needs more time on the case after the employee follows up, then the case will be in a status of Case in Continuance.
Employee Option B: Don’t Take Action
If the employee chooses not to take action on their tentative nonconfirmation, then E-Verify won’t be able to confirm their work authorization.
Next steps:
In the E-Verify case, select the option to indicate that the employee has chosen not to take action on resolving this case
Indicate whether or not you will continue to employ them
If you do continue to employ them, you will need to give a reason why
Close the case
This will result in a status of Final nonconfirmation.
Final Nonconfirmation [8]
Meaning: E-Verify was unable to confirm that the employee is authorized to work in the United States at this time.
This can happen after any of the following occurs:
The employee contacted DHS or visited an SSA field office during the mismatch referral process, and the office was still unable to verify employment eligibility.
The employee did not contact DHS or visit an SSA field office within 8 federal government working days
The employee did not tell you their decision on whether to take action or not within 10 federal government days after a mismatch was sent
Next steps: If you have not done so already, you must manually close the E-Verify case at this point. This can be done directly within the I-9 Center, when viewing the case results for the worker.
You can legally terminate the employment of the worker at this point in time. If you do choose to continue their employment, then you must specify a reason when closing the case.
Appeals process: If you or your employee would like to appeal the Final nonconfirmation result, you can do the following [9]:
“Call E-Verify at 1-888-464-4218. In a further review, E-Verify may revisit a case result and issue a Status Update Letter to the employer and employer agent, if applicable, as well as notify you.”
Sources & Document References:
[1] E-Verify Guide: PDF on FAQs for using E-Verify
[2] Federal Contractors: information on requirements under the law for federal contractors to utilize E-Verify
[3] E-Verify State Laws: Point on E-Verify historical timeline about state laws in 2021
[4] E-Verify State Mandates: Non U.S.-government site with an aggregation of current E-Verify state laws
[5] Tentative Nonconfirmations: E-Verify page detailing what a tentative nonconfirmation is, and how it can happen
[6] Processing a Tentative Nonconfirmation: E-Verify page listing next steps for what to do in the event of a Tentative nonconfirmation
[7] Confirm Employee Decision: E-Verify page outlining the requirements for confirming an employee's decision on their TNC case
[8] Final Nonconfirmation: E-Verify page with information on what a Final nonconfirmation status means, and next steps
[9] Sample Further Action Notice document (PDF)
[10] Sample Referral Date Confirmation document (PDF)
Related Articles
⬅️ Previous article: I-9 Scheduling Integrations & Calendar Setup
➡️ Next article: Supplement B
Sample Further Action Notice [9] and Referral Date Confirmation documents [10]: