Questions and Answers

The E-Verify MOU states than an account may be terminated at any time upon 30 days prior written notice. Under certain circumstances, an E-Verify client account may be closed prior to the end of the 30-day period. Those circumstances include:

• The company no longer exists;
• Closing the account is necessary to protect the account from unauthorized access;
• A company has duplicate or unnecessary accounts;
• A company needs to re-enroll in order to change its E-Verify access method; or
• E-Verify determines that closing an account before 30 days is necessary based on the requirements of law or policy.

To request that your E-Verify account be closed prior to 30 days from your notice of termination based on one of these circumstances, your company’s E-Verify employer agent or an authorized representative of your company must make a written request to E-Verify.

Closing E-Verify accounts prior to the end of the 30-day period is at the discretion of E-Verify.

On a temporary basis due to COVID-19, employers and workplaces that are operating remotely have the option to inspect Form I-9 documents remotely. Employers who choose the remote inspection option may inspect the Section 2 documents over video link, fax, email, etc. Employers should obtain, remotely inspect, and retain copies of the identity and employment eligibility documents their employees provide, within three business days for purposes of completing Section 2.

After they inspect the employee’s documents remotely and determine whether the documents reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the employee, they should create an E-Verify case for the employee. They should still follow current guidance and create the E-Verify case for their new hire within three business days from the date of hire. Employers must use the hire date from the employee’s Form I-9 when creating the E-Verify case. If case creation is delayed due to COVID-19 precautions, select “Other” from the drop-down list and enter “COVID-19” as the specific reason.

A. Yes, here is an overview:

• The employee completes Section 1 no later than the first day of employment.

There is no change to current requirements.

• The employer completes Section 2 within three business days of their employee’s first day of employment.

There is no change to current requirements for employees who are physically present at a work location.

Employers and workplaces that are operating remotely may follow the DHS news release that announced flexibility in requirements related to Form I-9.

If employers are performing inspections remotely (e.g., over video link, fax or email, etc.) they must obtain, inspect, and retain copies of the Section 2 documents within three business day of hire. In the Additional Information field, employers may indicate that remote inspection was completed and when.  A physical inspection must take place after normal operations resume. Employers should enter “COVID-19,” the date of the physical inspection and who conducted it   in the Additional Information field.  For more information, please see our Form I-9 mockups for visual examples of how remote and physical inspection should be notated. 

As a reminder, the employer may designate an authorized representative to complete Section 2 or 3 of Form I-9 on behalf of the company, including personnel officers, foremen, agents or notary public. The Department of Homeland Security does not require the authorized representative to have specific agreements or other documentation for Form I-9 purposes. If an authorized representative completes Form I-9 on behalf of the employer, the employer is still liable for any violations in connection with the form or the verification process.

• The employer physically examines their employee’s documents with their employee present.

DHS has announced changes to these procedures in certain circumstances; see the news release that announced flexibility in complying with requirements related to Form I-9.

• The employer completes Section 3, Reverification.

DHS has announced changes to these procedures; the ability to inspect documents remotely for some employers applies to reverification as well. See the March 20 news release for details on remote inspection. 

If you are updating Section 3, write “COVID-19” in the margin or annotate in the additional information field.

There is no change to current requirements for employees physically present at a work location.

NOTE: If you previously wrote “COVID-19 EXT” in the margin or in the Additional Information field on a Form I-9 when completing Section 3,  you do not need to correct this notation.

Not always. A key feature of NextGen is to allow employees to save their information in their myE-Verify account to be used for future employers. Once they receive their unique reference code from a new employer, the employee can simply update their information if necessary and complete the NextGen process with their new employer.

You have the option of treating all rehired employees as new hires by completing a new Form I-9 and creating a case in E-Verify. However, you also have the option of completing Section 3 for all rehires and only completing a new Form I-9 and creating an E-Verify case if you rehired employees who didn’t have a previous E-Verify case or if you created a case and did not receive a result of employment authorized.

For more information see Section 2.1.2 Rehires in the E-Verify User Manual.

Employers who are already enrolled do not need to execute a new MOU. However, as a reminder, when the signatory leaves, the employer continues to be bound to the terms and conditions of the most recent version of the MOU and E-Verify User Manual.

Yes, E-Verify’s Account Compliance Section monitors usage of E-Verify to detect, deter, and reduce misuse, abuse, discrimination, and fraud. Account Compliance monitors E-Verify participants and informs them when they are not in compliance with E-Verify policies and procedures. Participants are observed through various compliance activities. When noncompliance is observed, participants will be contacted by telephone or email. 

E-Verify requires all new users to take the full tutorial, while existing users may be required to take a refresher tutorial after system enhancements are deployed. While E-Verify may not require existing users to take updated tutorials, E-Verify recommends that an existing user who has not logged in for a while take several different refresher tutorials. The tutorials can be found in your E-Verify account under Resources.

E-Verify now alerts users before the release of a system enhancement that requires a tutorial update. Before a system enhancement release, E-Verify publishes an alert in the E-Verify system and an update on the E-Verify What's New page and distributes an email message to website subscribers. Subscribe to receive our email updates and get notifications sent to your email inbox.

Yes, petitions approved for the CNMI - only work categories of CW-1 (Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker) or E-2C (CNMI Investors) provide a Form I-94 that indicates this status. The Form I-94 with the foreign passport constitutes evidence of work authorization. Employers can create cases in E-Verify for employees who present a foreign passport with the Form I-94 indicating CW-1 or E-2C status. Additionally, employees may present any other acceptable documentation from the List of Acceptable Documents allowed by Form I-9 regulations.

The E-Verify federal contractor rule requires federal prime contractors with federal contracts containing the FAR E-Verify clause to require their subcontractors to use E-Verify when:

• The prime contract includes the FAR E-Verify clause.
• The subcontract is for commercial or noncommercial services or construction.
• The subcontract has a value of more than $3,500.
• The subcontract includes work performed in the United States.

Subcontractors who are only suppliers, however, are not subject to the E-Verify federal contractor rule.

The prime contractor should provide general oversight to subcontractors to ensure they meet the E-Verify requirement. A prime contractor may be subject to fines and penalties if it knowingly continues to work with a subcontractor who is in violation of the E-Verify requirement. The prime contractor must ensure that all covered subcontracts at every tier incorporate the FAR E-Verify clause at FAR 52.222-54. For more information on subcontractors, see the E-Verify Supplemental Guide for Federal Contractors.