E-Verify Requirements by State

The short answer

No federal law makes every employer use E-Verify. Federal law makes every employer complete a Form I-9 for each hire; E-Verify is the separate, free online check that some employers must add on top. For most private employers, whether you must depends on two things: whether you hold a federal contract with the E-Verify clause, and what your state says.

State laws come in three shapes, plus a fourth that runs the other way. A few cover every employer in the state. Some cover private employers only once they pass a headcount, from more than 10 to 35 employees in the states we read. Others reach only public employers and the businesses that take state contracts. And some impose no mandate but limit how you may use E-Verify. The table below is built one state at a time from each state's own law or labor department page, and it lists only the states we could read on October 23, 2026.

The federal layer: contractors and everyone else

When a federal contract includes the FAR clause, the clock starts at award.

Everyone else may enroll voluntarily. E-Verify itself is free, though a vendor or an E-Verify employer agent may charge to run it for you. Enrolling means signing the program's Memorandum of Understanding, and the rules bind you from then on: a case for each new hire by the third business day after they start work for pay, never before the person is hired and the Form I-9 is done, and the two required posters in English and Spanish, online too for remote staff.

The E-Verify for employers guide covers enrollment and the MOU, and the E-Verify employer agents compared page lists firms that run cases on your behalf.

E-Verify requirements by state

Each row below comes from the state's own statute, or an official state agency page or code PDF where the code site blocked us, read on October 23, 2026, and links the exact page we read. The table holds 17 states. It is not a list of every state with an E-Verify law: a state missing here may still have one.

Mississippi's row comes from the act as the Governor approved it in 2008; later amendments were not read. In North Carolina the source is the state labor department's complaint form, which cites the statute and sets out who is covered. Georgia's row comes from the Attorney General's affidavit form under the statute; its public-contract rules were not read. Colorado's comes from the 2024 edition of its code, the newest the legislature's site served.

How the headcount tests count

Where a state uses a headcount, the counting rule matters as much as the number. A 30-person employer with a permanent staff of 20 and ten seasonal workers can land on either side of a line, depending on the state.

Tennessee's smaller employers keep a choice: below 35 full-time equivalents, the law lets them either use E-Verify or request and keep copies of the identity and work-authorization documents the act lists. The state labor department notes that E-Verify may help in an audit. Count once a year, and again before any hiring push that takes you over a line.

State contracts and public money

Several of the states we read reach private businesses through their contracts rather than their labor laws. If you sell to a state agency, a city or a school district, the contract itself may be what requires E-Verify.

• Florida: every public agency contract must require the contractor and its subcontractors to use E-Verify for new hires, and each subcontractor gives the contractor an affidavit.
• Missouri: a state or local contract or grant over $5,000, or a state tax credit, abatement or loan, needs a sworn affidavit of E-Verify enrollment, given once a year to each public body you contract with.
• Minnesota: a state services contract over $50,000 needs your certification that you and your subcontractors have implemented, or are implementing, E-Verify for new hires working on the contract.
• Virginia: more than 50 employees on average and a state agency contract over $50,000 means E-Verify.
• South Carolina: a public employer may only sign a services contract with a contractor that uses E-Verify.
• Arizona: an employer must use E-Verify to receive a state or local economic development incentive.
• Indiana: public contracts for services and public works contracts must require E-Verify for the contractor's new hires, and a state or local grant over $1,000 needs proof of enrollment.
• Oklahoma: a public employer may not contract for services performed in the state unless the contractor and its subcontractors verify all new employees.
• Pennsylvania: public works over $25,000 mean E-Verify for every employee on the project, contractor and subcontractor alike.

Read the bid documents for the clause before you price the job, and see the E-Verify enrollment guide for the steps once it applies.

What a miss costs

In the laws we read, the penalties for skipping E-Verify land on what a small employer can least spare: its licenses and its public contracts. These are the penalty terms in those texts.

Federal penalties for the Form I-9 itself apply whatever your state says; the I-9 penalties guide has the current amounts.

Once your state requires it

A state mandate does not change how E-Verify works: the federal program's rules apply exactly as they do to a volunteer. What changes is that skipping a case is now a state violation too.

Never use E-Verify to screen applicants, never tell an employee which documents to bring (beyond a photo on a List B document), and never act against an employee while a Tentative Nonconfirmation (Mismatch) is open. They have eight federal government working days after referral to contact DHS or visit SSA. The mismatch guide walks through the notice, and the I-9 deadline calculator gives the Section 2 date and the case date for any start day.

Quick reference

Questions employers ask