E-Verify Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC): The Employer's Steps

What a Tentative Nonconfirmation means

E-Verify now labels a TNC Tentative Nonconfirmation (Mismatch). It means the information you entered from Form I-9 did not match the records DHS or SSA hold. It does not mean the person is unauthorized to work. Most mismatches come from a record that was never updated, a name change SSA never heard about, or a typo on your side.

The result names the agency. A DHS mismatch is resolved by phone with DHS; an SSA mismatch by a visit to an SSA field office. A dual mismatch means both agencies flagged the case at once, and the employee has to start with both inside the same eight-day window.

The case only exists because you completed Form I-9 and created it on time, so the mismatch process sits on top of the rules in our E-Verify for employers guide. The rest of this page follows the steps above in order.

Step one: the Further Action Notice

The Further Action Notice is the document you download from the case. It prints in English by default and can also print in Spanish; translations into other languages are in E-Verify's resources. It tells the employee which agency flagged the case, what they can do about it, and where to sign.

Sit down with the employee in private and go through the top of the notice together. If the personal details there are wrong because you typed them wrong, stop: select the statement that the information was not correct and close the case, then create a new case with the right data. If the details are correct, carry on.

1. If the employee cannot read, read the notice to them. If their English is limited, give them the translated version too.
2. Ask them to mark whether they will take action to resolve the mismatch.
3. Have them sign and date the notice printed in English.
4. Give them a copy of the signed notice (and the translation, if used).
5. Attach the signed original to their Form I-9.

The manual allows delivery in person, by fax, email, or overnight or next-day delivery, “as long as you take proper precautions to ensure the employee's information is protected”. For a remote hire, an encrypted email or a tracked envelope is fine; a group inbox or a manager's chat thread is not.

Step two: the employee decides

Whether to take action is the employee's call, not yours. Tell them plainly that they must give you their decision as soon as possible, and no later than the 10th federal government working day after the mismatch issued. Do not coach the answer, and do not suggest that taking action will cost them the job. It will not, and suggesting otherwise is the kind of pressure the E-Verify rules exist to prevent.

Silence is treated the same way. If the employee has not given you a decision by the end of the 10th federal government working day, close the case: select that the employee will not take action, then “Neither of the options above apply”, pick Other and type “Administrative / Employee Unavailable” or “Employee chose not to make a decision”. E-Verify then cannot confirm the person's work authorization, and you may end the employment.

If the employee says they will take action, you refer the case, and that click starts their own clock. Make sure the Further Action Notice is downloaded first: E-Verify will not let you refer without it.

Step three: referral and the eight days

Referring is a few clicks: select that the employee will take action, click Continue, and download the Referral Date Confirmation. That page carries the date by which the employee must contact the agency. Give the original to the employee, attach a copy to the Form I-9, and read it to them or give a translation on the same terms as the notice.

• DHS mismatch: the employee calls DHS. E-Verify's employee page also lets them upload documents through a myE-Verify account before calling.
• SSA mismatch: the employee visits an SSA field office and brings the Further Action Notice and the original documents it lists.
• Dual mismatch: both, inside the same eight days.
• Photo mismatch: E-Verify may ask you to upload a copy of the employee's photo document when you refer; the employee then contacts DHS.

Two clocks overlap in that example, and both end the same Friday only by coincidence. Yours (notify and refer) started when the mismatch issued; the employee's started when you referred. Refer the same day the employee decides: a referral you sit on eats into your own 10-working-day window. The case itself was due by the third business day after the start date; the I-9 and E-Verify deadline calculator gives that date.

After referral, DHS and SSA have 10 federal government working days to update the case. Check it periodically. If SSA finds that the data you sent does not match what it received, the case comes back as Review and Update Employee Data: go over the Form I-9 with the employee, correct the form if needed, and update the case. You get one update, so check it twice.

What you must not do while the case is open

• Terminate or suspend the employee because of the mismatch.
• Push back the start date, or keep a new hire off the schedule until the case clears.
• Delay training, withhold pay or lower pay.
• Ask for different or more documents, or for a specific document, to make the mismatch go away.
• Ask the employee to run Self Check to prove they can work.
• Discuss the result where anyone else can hear it, or copy it to their manager.

The start date line catches small employers most often. E-Verify tells employees they have the right to “start and continue working during the E-Verify process, including while you are resolving a mismatch”. Holding a new hire at home until the case clears is adverse action, even when it feels like caution. The same protection covers the quieter results: E-Verify Needs More Time and Case in Continuance are not reasons to treat someone as unauthorized either.

The document line matters just as much. You may require that a List B document carry a photo, and nothing more. A manager who answers a mismatch with “bring your passport instead” has turned a records question into a documentary-practices problem; the fines for that are in our Form I-9 penalties guide.

Keep the circle small. The manual asks that every mismatch and Final Nonconfirmation be discussed in private, and that only authorized E-Verify users handle case information. The supervisor needs to know the employee may need time for a call or an SSA visit, not why.

How the case ends

Every case has to end on a final result and be closed. Employment Authorized closes itself when you use E-Verify directly (through web-services software you close it by hand); record the case number on the Form I-9 or attach the case details page. Every other final result needs you to click Close Case and choose a closure statement.

On a Final Nonconfirmation, E-Verify asks whether you will keep the person on. You may end the employment, and the manual says you may do so with no civil or criminal liability under the MOU. You may also keep them; then you select the statement that the employee continues to work for you and type the reason. Either way, say what actually happened.

If a case sits in Case in Continuance for more than 60 federal government working days, the manual tells you to contact the E-Verify Contact Center. The employee keeps working throughout.

If an E-Verify employer agent runs your cases

An E-Verify employer agent is a firm that creates cases for you as a third party. The agent sees the mismatch first, but the conversation with the employee stays yours. The split below is from E-Verify's own guide for agents.

If you are choosing an agent, ask how they deliver the notice and how fast they refer once you send the signed copy. Our E-Verify employer agents compared page reads those workflows vendor by vendor, and the I-9 software comparison covers tools that run cases from your own account.

Questions employers ask