Employers
Form I-9
You must complete and retain Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, for every person hired for employment in the U.S. after Nov. 6, 1986, as long as the person works for pay or other type of remuneration. This requirement was not affected or suspended by the unavailability of E-Verify.
E-Verify
Creating Cases
If you participate in E-Verify, you must create an E-Verify case by Jan. 29, 2018, for each employee hired while E-Verify was not available. You must use the hire date from the employee’s Form I-9 when creating the E-Verify case. If you do not create an E-Verify case by the third business day after the employee begins work for pay, select “Other” from the drop-down list and enter “E-Verify not Available” as the specific reason.
Tentative Nonconfirmations
If your employee received a TNC on Jan. 22, 2018, you must revise the date by which your employee must contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) or DHS to begin resolving the TNC. To do this, add 1 federal business day to the date on your employee’s “Referral Date Confirmation” notice. Please give the revised notice to your employee.
You may reprint a copy of your employee’s “Referral Date Confirmation” by logging in to E-Verify, selecting your employee’s case, and selecting the “Print Confirmation” button. Be sure to cross out the old date and insert the new date. Employees have until this new date to contact the SSA or DHS to resolve their cases, as applicable.
If the unavailability of E-Verify prevented you from referring a TNC case, you should continue the TNC process once your employee has decided whether or not they wish to contest the TNC. For TNC cases that were referred after E-Verify resumed operations, do not add days to the time your employee has to contact either SSA or DHS. If your employee decided to contest the TNC when E-Verify was unavailable, you should now refer the employee’s case and follow the TNC process.
Federal Contractor Deadlines
During the lapse in appropriations, federal contractors could not enroll or use E-Verify as required by the E-Verify federal contractor rule (FAR). As a result, any calendar day during which E-Verify was unavailable because of the lapse in appropriations should not count towards any of the federal contractor deadlines. Please contact your contracting officer for more information on federal contractor responsibilities.
Employees
If the lapse in appropriations prevented you from contesting your Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC), you will be given additional time to contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) or DHS to begin the process of resolving your TNC. If your referral date confirmation was received on Jan. 22, 2018, you should:
- Add 1 federal business day to the date printed on the “Referral Date Confirmation” that your employer provided you after you contested your TNC. Federal business days are Monday through Friday and do not include federal holidays. You may also contact your employer if you are unsure of the new date by which you must contact either SSA or DHS to resolve your TNC.
- Contact either SSA or DHS by the new date to begin the process of resolving your TNC.
For more information about contesting your TNC, please refer to E-Verify’s employee page.
E-Verify Support
The E-Verify Contact Center expects an increase in requests for assistance. Due to this increase, users may experience longer than normal delays and response times. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience. For any questions or additional information about the unavailability of E-Verify, please email e-verify@uscis.dhs.gov. For questions about Form I-9, please visit I-9 Central or email I-9central@uscis.dhs.gov. Employers and employees may also contact E-Verify at 888-464-4218. The E-Verify Contact Center representatives are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Eastern).