E-Verify for Employers: Enrollment, the MOU, Cost and How It Fits with Form I-9
Updated 13 min read
What E-Verify is, and what it is not
- What it costs
- Nothing. E-Verify is freeUser Manual § 1.1
- What you sign
- Terms and Conditions of the MOUUser Manual § 1.3
- When it runs
- After Form I-9, never before the hireUser Manual § 1.5
- Case deadline
- 3rd business day after work for pay startsUser Manual § 1.5
- What it needs from the hire
- A Social Security number on Form I-9User Manual § 2.1
- Posters
- 2, in English and SpanishUser Manual § 1.5
- Replaces Form I-9
- NeverSample MOU, Art. II.A.8
E-Verify is the federal system that checks the Form I-9 you already completed against government records. In its own words, it “electronically confirms an employee's eligibility to work in the United States after completion of Form I-9”. The order matters: the hire is made, the employee completes Section 1, you examine documents and complete Section 2, and only then do you open an E-Verify case with the information on the form.
For most private employers it is voluntary. Some states require it for some or all employers, and federal contracts that carry the FAR E-Verify clause require it of the contractor; our E-Verify requirements by state table lists the state laws one statute at a time. Everyone else enrolls by choice, usually for one of three reasons: a customer or contract asks for it, they want to examine I-9 documents remotely, or they want the legal presumption the program gives.
When you confirm a new hire through E-Verify, you establish “a rebuttable presumption that it has not violated section 274A(a)(1)(A)” of the Immigration and Nationality Act for that hire, the section on knowingly hiring someone not authorized to work. It is a presumption, not immunity: it can be rebutted, and it does nothing for a missing or broken Form I-9.
Sample E-Verify MOU for Employers (rev. 06/01/13), Art. II.A.8.a
The trade is real work on your side. Every new hire at an enrolled hiring site gets a case, you can no longer accept a List B identity document without a photo, and you take on a mismatch process with its own notices and clocks. The rest of this guide walks those duties in the order you meet them.
What to do
- Check whether a state law or a federal contract already requires you to enroll.
- Decide who will run cases: your own staff, or an outside E-Verify employer agent.
- Keep your Form I-9 process intact. E-Verify sits on top of it.
How to enroll in E-Verify
- 01
Search E-Verify's employer list to see if your company is already enrolled
E-Verify Employer Search
- 02
Select Enroll Now and agree to the terms shown
Required to continue
- 03
Submit an email address and open the one-time activation link
Starts the session
- 04
Choose the access method by answering four questions
Employer, agent, corporate, web services
- 05
Pick an employer category, or “None of these categories apply”
Federal contractors say so here
- 06
Enter company details: legal name, EIN, employee count, NAICS code, addresses
NAICS look-up offered
- 07
Add every hiring site that will use E-Verify
One by one or a .csv upload
- 08
Name one Program Administrator and one Signatory
Can be the same person
- 09
Review, submit, and sign the Terms and Conditions of the MOU electronically
Print a copy
- 10
Complete the online training, then register your other users
Before any case
Enrollment happens on E-Verify's own website and takes one sitting. E-Verify's checklist is blunt about it: “Enrollment must be completed within a single web session,” and the enrollment page warns that you cannot save your progress. Gather everything below first, and do it on a desktop; the site itself suggests mobile users stop and finish on a computer.
| Have this ready | Who needs it |
|---|---|
| Company legal name | All companies |
| Employer identification number (federal tax ID) | All companies |
| Primary physical address you will use E-Verify from | All companies |
| Mailing address, if different | All companies |
| Hiring sites that will participate, in each state | All companies |
| Total number of current employees | All companies |
| NAICS code | All companies |
| Name, phone and email of the Signatory and the Program Administrator | All companies |
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) | Federal contractors with the FAR clause |
The two named people matter more than they look. The Signatory is the person who signs the Terms and Conditions for the company, so it should be someone with authority to bind it. The Program Administrator becomes a user on the account who manages other users and cases. Every account needs at least one, and the manual makes that person “responsible for following all E-Verify program rules and staying informed of changes”. In a small company both roles often land on the owner or the HR lead, and the form lets one person hold both.
Hiring sites are the third decision. You list the physical address of each site that will take part. The duty that follows is site-wide: at a participating site, every new hire gets a case. The sample MOU says the employer “will not verify selectively”.
Program Administrators and general users must successfully complete the online E-Verify tutorial before they can create or manage cases, and they take refresher tutorials when E-Verify prompts them. A user who skips a refresher cannot keep using E-Verify.
User Manual § 1.4; sample MOU for Employers, Art. II.A.5
One more rule that surprises new participants: you cannot run E-Verify on the people you already employ. The manual forbids a case for an employee hired before you signed the Terms and Conditions, with exceptions for federal contractors under the FAR clause. Enrollment starts the clock for new hires only.
What to do
- Run the employer search first; a previous owner or office may already have enrolled the company.
- Collect the checklist items and pick your Signatory and Program Administrator before you start.
- Finish the tutorial before the next hire's first day, so the case deadline does not catch you untrained.
Access methods: who runs your cases
| Access method | Who creates the cases | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Employer | Your own users, in E-Verify (or E-Verify+) | Most participants, of any size |
| E-Verify employer agent | An outside individual or company, for its clients | Employers who want cases run for them |
| Corporate administrator | Nobody: it only manages other accounts | A central office over many locations |
| Web services | Your own software, linked to E-Verify | Employers and agents with an I-9 system to connect |
The access method is the first real choice in enrollment, and it decides which version of the MOU you sign: E-Verify publishes separate sample MOUs for employers, for employer agents, for employers using an agent, and for the web services variants. The manual is plain about the default: most participants, “regardless of their business size or structure”, use employer access and run their own cases. E-Verify+ is offered on employer access only.
An E-Verify employer agent is E-Verify's term for “any person, company, or other entity that is providing the service of verifying employees as a third party to employers”. Some payroll, HR and electronic I-9 providers take on that role. The agent creates and manages your cases; you still own the Form I-9, the posters and the conversation with an employee who gets a mismatch. We compare firms that take the role in E-Verify employer agents compared.
- On a mismatch, the agent prints the Further Action Notice; you review it with the employee in private, keep the signed original with the Form I-9 and send the agent a copy.
- Win a federal contract with the FAR E-Verify clause and tell the agent at once: it has 30 days from the award to update your profile.
- Before you switch agents, get a report of your old cases. Once the former agent closes your client account, those cases cannot be moved.
Supplemental Guide for E-Verify Employer Agents; sample MOU for Employers Using an E-Verify Employer Agent
Corporate administrator access suits a company with several locations, each holding its own employer account, and a head office that wants to see and manage them. It creates no cases of its own. Web services is for an employer or agent that builds the connection into its own software, which is how most electronic I-9 products submit cases; see I-9 and E-Verify software compared for tools that offer it.
What to do
- A few hires a month and one careful person to run them: employer access is usually enough.
- Already paying an electronic I-9 or payroll vendor: ask whether it acts as an E-Verify employer agent.
- Whatever you choose, keep the Further Action Notice step in-house; it is a private conversation.
The MOU: what you agree to
Enrolling means signing the E-Verify Terms and Conditions of the Memorandum of Understanding, the agreement between your company and DHS whose guidelines, the User Manual says, every user must follow. You sign it electronically at the end of enrollment, and the confirmation page lets you print the copy you signed. Print it: that copy is the one an auditor or a new HR lead will ask for.
| What the employer agrees to | MOU article |
|---|---|
| Display the E-Verify participation and Right to Work notices | II.A.1 |
| Keep the contact names DHS and SSA hold for you current | II.A.2 |
| Give access only to current employees who need it; remove it promptly | II.A.3 |
| Follow the most recent E-Verify User Manual | II.A.4 |
| Have each user finish the tutorial before creating cases | II.A.5 |
| Accept only List B documents with a photo | II.A.6.a |
| Copy a U.S. passport, passport card, Green Card or EAD and keep it with the I-9 | II.A.6.b |
| Write the case verification number on the I-9, or attach the screen | II.A.7 |
| Keep completing, retaining and producing Form I-9 | II.A.8 |
| No case before the hire; case within three business days after it | II.A.9 |
| No pre-employment screening of applicants | II.A.10 |
| Verify every new employee, never selectively | II.A.11 |
| Notify the employee of a mismatch privately and follow the process | II.A.12 |
Most of these lines restate rules you would follow anyway. Three change daily practice. The photo rule narrows List B. The copy rule means the documents that trigger E-Verify's photo matching must be copied and kept, even if your policy is not to copy I-9 documents. And the case number ties each E-Verify case to its Form I-9, which is how an inspector matches the two.
If E-Verify returns a Final Nonconfirmation and you keep the person on without notifying DHS, the civil penalty is $998 to $1,992 per individual (the 2025 inflation-adjusted amounts, still in force). The sample MOU prints older, lower figures; ignore them.
8 U.S.C. § 1324a note; 28 CFR 68.52(c)(6)
Leaving is simple on paper. Article V lets the employer end the MOU “at any time upon 30 days prior written notice”. Through an agent, the request goes in through the agent at least 30 days ahead, and open cases are closed in that window. A federal contractor is different: the sample MOU lets it end participation when the contract that requires E-Verify ends or is completed.
What to do
- Save the signed Terms and Conditions with your I-9 policy.
- Update your I-9 procedure for the photo rule and the document copies before the first case.
- Add a field for the E-Verify case number to however you store Forms I-9.
What E-Verify costs
None
User Manual § 1.1; sample MOU, Art. IV.1
The program is free. The manual says it in its first section, “E-Verify is free”, and the sample MOU says SSA and DHS “will not charge the Employer for verification services”. What you supply is a computer with internet access and the people to run it. A page or an email that asks you to pay to enroll is not from E-Verify.
The costs that do exist are your own. Someone has to take the tutorial, open each case on time, and handle any mismatch from notice to closure. If you would rather not, an E-Verify employer agent or an electronic I-9 product can do the case work, and they charge for it. Ask what a quote covers: case creation only, or mismatch handling, photo matching and the Further Action Notice paperwork as well. Our background check cost guide covers the separate bill for screening, which E-Verify does not replace.
How E-Verify fits with Form I-9
- 01
Offer accepted
Section 1 may start; nothing goes to E-Verify
Employee
- 02
First day of work for pay
Section 1 done at the latest
Employee
- 03
Within 3 business days
Documents examined, Section 2 signed
You or your representative
- 04
By the 3rd business day
E-Verify case created from the finished form
Your E-Verify user or agent
- 05
Result
Employment authorized, or a mismatch to work through
E-Verify
E-Verify never replaces Form I-9. The manual puts it simply: the Form I-9 requirements “also apply to E-Verify employers”. You still complete Sections 1 and 2 on time, keep the form for the retention period and produce it at an inspection. The case is built from the finished form, so a mistake on the form becomes a mistake in the case. Our Form I-9 employer guide covers the form section by section.
Create the case no later than the third business day after the employee starts work for pay, after Form I-9 is complete. Section 2 has its own three-business-day deadline: start Monday, finish Section 2 by Thursday. The I-9 and E-Verify deadline calculator gives both dates.
E-Verify User Manual § 1.5; 8 CFR § 274a.2(b)(1)(ii)
E-Verify counts that deadline in business days without defining them, and keeps its stricter “federal government working days” (no federal holidays) for the mismatch steps. If you find a missed case, create it at once: the system asks for a reason when a case is three or more days late, from a short list or in your own words.
| Point | Form I-9 alone | With E-Verify |
|---|---|---|
| List B identity document | Any on the list | Must carry a photo |
| Social Security number in Section 1 | Voluntary | Required to create the case |
| Copies of documents | Optional; copy one, copy all | Required for passport, passport card, Green Card, EAD |
| Receipt for a lost, stolen or damaged document | Accepted | Accepted; the case waits for the document |
| Reverification (Supplement B) | On the form | On the form; never a new case |
| Rehire within three years | Supplement B or a new form | Supplement B only if the old case was authorized |
Two lines in that table cause most of the trouble. The photo rule is the only document rule E-Verify adds: you may tell a new hire that a List B document must have a photo, and nothing more. You still cannot ask for a particular document, and asking for a passport or a Green Card because it triggers photo matching is exactly what the manual forbids. And reverification stays on paper. When an EAD expires, you complete Supplement B; E-Verify may remind you with a case alert, but it never takes a new case for it.
What to do
- Finish Form I-9 first, then open the case from it.
- Record the E-Verify case number on the form.
- Train whoever examines documents on the photo rule, and on never asking for a specific document.
When E-Verify returns a mismatch
E-Verify now labels a TNC a Tentative Nonconfirmation (Mismatch). It means the record did not match; it does not mean the person cannot work. Notify the employee privately with the Further Action Notice as soon as possible, within 10 federal government working days of the result. If they choose to act, they have eight federal government working days after you refer the case to contact DHS or visit SSA.
“Employers may not terminate, suspend, delay training, withhold or lower pay, or take any other adverse action against an employee because the employee received a mismatch. If the mismatch becomes a Final Nonconfirmation, the employer may terminate the employee.”
E-Verify User Manual § 3.3
The step-by-step, from the notice to case closure, is in our guide to the E-Verify Tentative Nonconfirmation.
The two posters
Every E-Verify employer displays two notices: the Notice of E-Verify Participation from DHS and the Right to Work poster from the Justice Department's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section. Both go up in English and Spanish, where applicants and employees can see them.
The notices reach “prospective employees and all employees, including those hired to work in a remote setting”. That can mean posting them online and in hard copy at your sites, and sending them with job application materials.
E-Verify User Manual § 1.5
For a remote team, that means the careers page or the application portal, not only the break room. Our labor law poster guide covers the federal posters that sit beside these two.
Remote document examination
Enrollment opens one door that nothing else does. Since August 1, 2023, an employer enrolled in E-Verify and in good standing may examine Form I-9 documents remotely at its E-Verify hiring sites, under the DHS alternative procedure: copies of the documents first, then a live video call where the employee shows the same documents, then the alternative-procedure box on the form and clear copies kept with it.
Good standing means enrolled for every U.S. hiring site that uses the procedure, compliant with all E-Verify requirements, including verifying new hires, and still so on every day the procedure is used. A late or skipped case is not a side issue here; it can take away the right to examine remotely.
8 CFR § 274a.2(b)(1)(ix); 88 FR 47749 (July 25, 2023)
If you offer it at a site, offer it to every new hire there. You may limit it to fully remote hires, as long as the line is not drawn for a discriminatory reason. Every new hire at that site still gets an E-Verify case, remote examination or not. The full procedure is in remote I-9 and the DHS alternative procedure, and the services that run the video step for you are in remote I-9 verification services compared.
Federal contractors and the FAR clause
| Step | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Enroll as a federal contractor | Within 30 calendar days of contract award |
| Start verifying all new hires | Within 90 calendar days of enrollment |
| Each new hire after that | Within 3 business days after the date of hire |
| Employees assigned to the contract | 90 days after enrollment or 30 days after assignment, whichever is later |
A federal contract or subcontract with the FAR E-Verify clause makes E-Verify a condition of performance, and it brings its own clock. Enrollment as a federal contractor needs one extra item, the Unique Entity Identifier, and the employer-category question during enrollment is where you say you are one.
The clause is also the main exception to the new-hires-only rule: a contractor verifies existing employees assigned to the contract, which an ordinary participant may not do. If an agent runs your cases, tell it the day the contract is awarded; it has 30 days from the award to update your profile.
What to do
- Put the award date in your calendar with the 30-day and 90-day marks.
- List the employees assigned to the contract and their assignment dates.
- Read the E-Verify Supplemental Guide for Federal Contractors before the first assigned-employee case.
- Cost to the employer
- FreeE-Verify User Manual § 1.1
- Enrollment
- Online, one sessionE-Verify Enrollment Checklist
- Agreement signed
- Terms and Conditions of the MOUUser Manual § 1.3
- Access methods
- Employer, agent, corporate, web servicesUser Manual § 1.3
- Before the first case
- Online tutorialUser Manual § 1.4
- Case deadline
- 3rd business day after work startsUser Manual § 1.5
- Employee contacts DHS or SSA
- 8 federal government working days after referralUser Manual § 3.3
- Posters
- 2, English and SpanishUser Manual § 1.5
- FAR clause enrollment
- 30 days after award48 CFR § 52.222-54
- Leaving E-Verify
- 30 days' written noticeSample MOU, Art. V.B.1
Questions employers ask
Is E-Verify free for employers?
Yes. DHS and SSA charge nothing to enroll or to run cases. You pay only if you hire an E-Verify employer agent or buy software that runs cases for you.
Can I run E-Verify on a candidate before I make an offer?
No. Pre-screening applicants is prohibited. The case is created only after the person has accepted the offer and Form I-9 is complete. Background checks before the offer follow different rules; see FCRA background check rules.
Once enrolled, do I run E-Verify on my current employees?
No, and you may not. Cases are for people hired after you signed the Terms and Conditions. The exception is a federal contractor with the FAR clause, which verifies employees assigned to the contract and may choose to verify all existing employees hired after November 6, 1986.
How long does enrollment take?
E-Verify gives no official time, but it must be finished in a single web session and progress cannot be saved. With the checklist items in front of you, it is one sitting. The tutorial comes after, before the first case.
Can I enroll only some of my locations?
You list the hiring sites that will participate. At each enrolled site, every new hire gets a case. Some state laws and federal contracts decide the question for you; check the state requirements first.
Does an E-Verify result mean I can skip any part of Form I-9?
No. Form I-9 is still completed, kept and produced on request. An authorized result does not fix a missing Section 2 signature or a late form. The I-9 self-audit checklist walks the form line by line.
Can I stop using E-Verify later?
Yes, with 30 days' written notice under the MOU. Through an agent, the request goes in through the agent at least 30 days ahead. Ask for a report of your cases before the account closes, and remember that a state law or federal contract may still require you to participate.