E-Verify Isn’t Running During the Federal Government Shutdown. What Am I Supposed to Do?

Impacted by the federal government’s shutdown, the Department of Homeland security has turned E-Verify off, making it impossible to E-Verify new employees. When running employers who are enrolled in E-Verify are required to check all new employees within the first three (3) days of hire in order to confirm that the person is authorized to work in the United States. With the shutdown E-Verify isn’t operational, but fortunately the Department of Homeland Security has allowed a reprieve from this requirement until it’s up and running. It isn’t clear yet whether employers will need to retroactively do E-Verify once it’s operational again, but for now the lack of being able to utilize E-Verify should not prevent employers from hiring.

While E-Verify and the Form I-9 process are linked, the federal shutdown does not alleviate an employer’s obligation to do the Form I-9. Form I-9s can be done by paper and the recent forms are found at www.uscis.gov/i-9. Nothing with this shutdown relieves an employer from satisfying its Form I-9 requirements.

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