E-VERIFY RESUMES OPERATIONS DURING TEMPORARY REOPENING OF GOVERNMENT – February 11, 2019 Deadline

On January 27, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security announced that E-Verify will resume operations during the temporary reopening of the government. Employers who participate in E-Verify and who have hired employees when E-Verify was unavailable during the partial government shutdown must create an E-Verify case for each new hire by February 11, 2019. Employers are instructed to use the hire date from the employee’s Form I-9 when creating the E-Verify case. If the case creation date is more than three days following the date the employee began working, select “Other” from the drop-down list and enter “E-Verify Not Available” as the specific reason.

Please note that the legislation permitting the temporary reopening of the government is set to expire on February 15, 2019. Unless the President and Congress can reach a deal before that date, there remains a possibility for another government shutdown and E-Verify service disruption. As such, employers should adhere to the February 11, 2019 deadline for affected cases, as well as initiate an E-Verify case for each new hire as soon as possible. Due to the high volume of accumulated cases resulting from the government shutdown’s disruption to the service, employers will likely experience longer than usual processing times and delayed responses to requests for assistance.