E-Verify is a free, Internet-based system operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to electronically verify their employees’ employment eligibility. Results are returned online within seconds.
E-Verify is the best means available to determine the employment eligibility of new hires. E-Verify is currently available in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
More than 96 percent of E-Verify verification cases receive a case result of ‘Employment Authorized.’ Employees who receive an initial mismatch with a case result of ‘SSA or DHS Tentative Nonconfirmation (Mismatch)’ have the right to take action to resolve the case result and must be allowed to continue working during this process. A federal contractor may not refuse to assign an employee to work on a federal contract or remove an employee from working on a federal contract while the employee is taking action to resolve the case result. Additionally, a federal contractor may not take any other adverse action such as delaying training, changing shifts or withholding wages, related to a mismatch while the employee takes action to resolve the case. A federal contractor that takes any adverse action against an employee while taking action to resolve the case violates the E-Verify memorandum of understanding (MOU) and may be subject to civil penalties, back pay and other remedies under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1324b, or Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and may lose access to E-Verify.