QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Get answers to your E-Verify questions.

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If your company is enrolled as a(n):

  • Employer: You must begin using E-Verify for all new hires on the date you electronically sign the memorandum of understanding (MOU).
  • Corporate Administrator:You cannot create cases in E-Verify. You must enroll your company’s locations and sign an MOU for each verification location. The verification location must begin using E-Verify for all new hires on the date that you, as the corporate administrator, signed the MOU for that location.
  • E-Verify Employer Agents: You may begin to create cases in E-Verify for all your new hires on the date you electronically sign the MOU. Once you have a client, you must submit an additional MOU signed by you and the client company to DHS. Once you submit the client company’s MOU and the client enrollment is active, you must immediately begin using E-Verify for all of your client company’s new hires at the location(s) specified.
  • E-Verify Employer Agent Clients: You must sign an MOU and submit it to your E-Verify employer agent. After you submit the MOU and your enrollment is active, your E-Verify employer agent must create cases in E-Verify for all of your new hires at the location(s) specified.
  • Web Services Access for Employers: You must begin to create cases in E-Verify either through the E-Verify website or your software that interfaces with E-Verify for all new hires on the date you electronically sign the memorandum of understanding (MOU).
  • Web Services Access for E- Verify Employer Agents: You may begin to create cases in E-Verify either through the E-Verify website or your software that interfaces with E-Verify for all your new hires on the date you electronically sign the MOU. Once you have a client, you must submit an additional MOU signed by you and the client company to DHS. Once you submit the client company’s MOU and the client enrollment is active, you must immediately begin using E-Verify for all of your client company’s new hires at the location(s) specified.
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No, your employer may not ask you to obtain a printout from SSA records or other written verification of your Social Security number from SSA. 

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When creating an E-Verify case you must enter all other last names used that the employee provided on their Form I-9. If the employee leaves the Other Last Names Used field blank, select the check box attesting that no other last names were provided on the employee’s Form I-9. If the employee leaves the Other Last Names Used field blank, select the check box attesting that no other last names were provided on the employee’s Form I-9.

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Yes, you must enroll in E-Verify, sign an E-Verify memorandum of understanding (MOU), and participate in E-Verify in order to employ F-1 students seeking an extension of their optional practical training (OPT) under the STEM-designated degree program. F-1 students who participate in an approved period of post-completion OPT after earning a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree from the list of designated STEM degrees may apply for this extension of their OPT.

Universities seeking to hire F-1 students who are applying for the STEM OPT extension should enroll in E-Verify either as the university as a whole or as separate departments. If the university as a whole enrolls in E-Verify, the F-1 STEM OPT students may work in any qualifying STEM departments in the university. If the university departments are separately enrolled in E-Verify then only those university departments that have a signed E-Verify MOU qualify as E-Verify employers and F-1 STEM OPT students may only work for those departments.

Employment agencies and consulting firms that wish to employ F-1 OPT students who seek the extension must be enrolled in E-Verify. Third parties contracting with the agency or firm for which the student is providing services need not be enrolled.

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Yes. You must replace previous versions of their posters with the most recent versions as soon as possible. The latest versions of the E-Verify Participation and the IER Right to Work posters are available on the resources page and in E-Verify under View Essential Resources and View Resources pages.

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Unless an employer is a federal contractor with a federal contract containing the FAR E-Verify clause, it cannot use E-Verify for existing employees. Employers should not go back and create a case for any employee hired during the time its account was inactive and there was deliberate non-use of E-Verify.  An employer who learns that he or she has failed to create a case in E-Verify by the third business day after the employee’s first day of employment should immediately create a case for the employee. In this case, however, the employer’s account was inactive due to deliberate non-use while hiring several hundred employees over several years. This employer should not go back and create cases for these employees, since they are no longer new employees.
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Yes. Employees hired on or before November 6, 1986, and still in continuous employment with the employer are exempt from the FAR E-Verify requirement.

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Many states require employers to disclose E-Verify case information to state auditors as proof of compliance with state laws requiring use of E-Verify as a condition of state business licensing. Employers and their E-Verify Employer Agents who enroll in E-Verify to comply with state law are authorized by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide certain E-Verify information to authorized state officials, DHS, IER and their contractors. This permission allows employers to comply with state laws as well as the E-Verify Memorandum of Understanding, which only allows dissemination of certain E-Verify information when it is authorized in advance by SSA or DHS for legitimate purposes. 

The E-Verify Quick Audit Report was designed to satisfy requirements that employers report their E-Verify activity to authorized Federal, state, and local government agencies.

The Quick Audit Report case data provides:

  • basic company information
  • case identifiers
  • case resolution information
  • no sensitive employee information

You may find further information about the Quick Audit Report in the E-Verify User Manual for Employers.

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If a citizen of the FSM, the RMI or Palau receives an E-Verify TNC, it is usually because of a name and date of birth mismatch. When completing Form I-9, instruct employees to use their full legal name and to enter their date of birth in the month/day/year format. Be especially careful when you enter the employee’s name and date of birth in E-Verify. Also, note their citizenship status. They should mark “alien authorized to work,” not “noncitizen national of the United States.”

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To reset a user’s password, follow the steps outlined in Reset User’s Password – Process Overview.

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