E-Verify During the Shutdown

As you likely know, the government has been shutdown due to the inability of lawmakers to reach an agreement on a budget for the United States. Most other employers, however, are open for business and continue to hire new employees. Some of these employers subscribe to E-Verify, the internet-based system used to verify an employee’s work authorization. Because E-Verify is run by the government, it too has been shutdown. So what are employers to do?

Since the shutdown began, employers have not been able to enroll in E-Verify, verify employment eligibility, view or take action on any case, run reports, or edit company information. To complicate the matter, E-Verify’s customer support is also shutdown.

What should you do? Keep a log of all the employees who have been hired during the shutdown. When the government re-opens and E-Verify is back online, run the employee through E-Verify as you normally would. If there was an employee who was run through E-Verify prior to the shutdown and you received a tentative non-confirmation (TNC) or some other interim case status, do not take any adverse action against that employee. The days the government has been shutdown will not count toward the applicable deadline to resolve the TNC or interim status.

Form I-9 Requirements Still Apply. Employers are still required to comply with the Form I-9 rules. Employee’s should complete Section 1 prior to or on their first day of work for pay, and Section 2 should be completed prior to on the third day of work for pay. Employees must still establish that they are authorized to work via acceptable documents.

Stephen J. Quezada

squezada@montyramirezlaw.com

281.493.5529