The recent shutdown of the federal government has raised red flags and caused issues for many employers in the United States. One such issue is that E-Verify, the Employment Eligibility Verification program, is currently offline. E-Verify is the Internet-based program run by the United States government that assures an employee’s legal eligibility to work in the United States. This is legally required prior to hiring anyone for work for pay.
Though employers are still required to collect federal identification including social security cards, birth certificates, and/or driver’s licenses in order to complete the Form I-9, the E-Verify process is unable to be completed with the shutdown.
According to the USCIS website describing the impact of the government shutdown in conjunction with the E-Verify program, while unavailable, employers will not be able to access their E-Verify accounts and thus will be unable to:
- Enroll any company in E-Verify
- Verify employment eligibility
- View or take action on any case
- Add, delete or edit any User ID
- Reset passwords
- Edit your company information
- Terminate an account
- Run reports
- View ‘Essential Resources.’ Please note that all essential resources may be found by visiting www.dhs.gov/e-verify.
- Employees will be unable to resolve Tentative Nonconfirmations (TNCs).
- Telephone and e-mail support will be unavailable. You may send e-mails, however, we cannot respond until we reopen.
- E-Verify webinars and training sessions are cancelled
- E-Verify Self Check will not be available
This has had a large impact in many of the day-to-day processes for many employers, specifically staffing agencies who hire new employees on a daily basis and therefore run E-Verifies frequently. For additional information on the current shutdown and how it will affect you and/or your company regarding the E-Verify program, please visit the USCIS page here.
