E-Verify is administered centrally at each university. Contact your central Human Resources office with any questions about E-Verify. Colleges and departments must never individually enroll in E-Verify.
What is E-Verify?
E-Verify is a federal system that electronically verifies an employee's authorization to work in the United States. Information from an employee's Form I-9 is checked against records contained in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) databases.
Compliance with federal E-Verify requirements is essential to the University of Illinois System research enterprise. As a recipient of federal contract funding, the University of Illinois is subject to federal Executive Order 12989, which requires participation in E-Verify for employers with qualifying contracts containing the E-Verify clause. Failure to comply with this mandate could result in severe penalties, up to and including debarment (loss of all current and future federal funding).
Who Needs to be E-Verified?
All newly hired employees – including faculty, staff, temporary workers, and student employees – must be E-Verified by their third day of work.
If an existing employee who has not been E-Verified transfers to work on a qualifying federal contract, then E-Verify must be completed within 30 days of beginning work on the contract.
Rehired employees (those who previously separated and are later hired back) will need a new Form I-9 completed and will also be E-Verified.
A new employee who was E-Verified by a previous employer must still be E-Verified by the University of Illinois.
Who Will Not be E-Verified?
Once an employee has been E-Verified, if s/he remains continuously employed by the University of Illinois, then the employee must not be E-Verified again, even if s/he changes departments or campuses. If a continuously employed employee’s work authorization is expiring, it will need to be reverified using Section 3 of the Form I-9, but E-Verify is not completed again.
Additionally, employees hired on or before November 6, 1986, and who have remained continuously employed, cannot be E-Verified.
How Does E-Verify Work?
For new hires: After a new hire has accepted an offer of employment, an individual in your college, unit, or HR office who is authorized to use the Tracker electronic Form I-9 system (called “I-9 Managers”) will complete the Form I-9 with the newly hired employee.
I-9 Managers will not interact directly with E-Verify. E-Verify transactions will be completed within the existing Tracker system. The E-Verify process will be largely automated, and will begin after Form I-9 is submitted. E-Verify case results will be handled centrally by your university Human Resources (HR) office.
For current employees who will be transferred to or paid from a qualifying federal contract: Most often, your central HR office will be notified by the Grants & Contracts office that a qualifying federal contract has been awarded, and then will contact you (the hiring department or unit) right away. If you have not heard from central HR, and you are aware that you have a federal contract carrying the E-Verify clause, and an employee in your department or unit must be E-Verified, contact your central HR office. Your central HR office will handle E-Verify from start to finish. The process is as follows:
- The central HR office will contact the employee(s) and meet with them to complete the Form I-9 and E-Verify.
- Central HR informs the employee of the result and any next steps. Many E-Verify cases return a result within seconds.
- The next step depends on the result:
- Employment Authorized: No additional action is needed.
- DHS Verification in Progress: Central HR waits up to 24 hours for a DHS response.
- SSA Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC): Central HR will contact the employee with the next steps.
- DHS Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC): Central HR will contact the employee with the next steps.
If an employee receives a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC), central HR will contact the employee directly with the next steps. The employee will have 8 federal working days to contact the appropriate agency to contest the TNC and resolve any issues. A TNC does not necessarily mean the employee isn’t authorized to work, it just means that more information is needed, and there are many legitimate reasons for this to occur. No adverse action may be taken, and your employee may continue working while the case is resolved.
Employee requests for time off to resolve a tentative non-confirmation are handled pursuant to existing policies for approved absence or paid time off. If needed, the employees should request this time through their supervisor and contact campus/central HR if there are any questions.
If an employee receives a FINAL Nonconfirmation (FNC), central HR will coordinate with Legal Counsel, but it is likely the employee will need to be terminated based on this E-Verify status.
How Can Employees Prepare for E-Verify?
For the most part, preparation is no different than for completing the Form I-9, during which the employee must present any original, unexpired List A document OR a combination of a List B and a List C document. For E-Verify, if the employee chooses to present a List B document, then it must contain a photograph.
Additionally, the employee must provide his or her Social Security Number. An employee without an SSN must apply for it as soon as possible. The I-9 process will still be completed as usual, but the E-Verify query will be initiated once the SSN is obtained. The employee will be allowed to work temporarily without the SSN or the E-Verify system result, but it is imperative that the employee provide their SSN as soon as they obtain it.
To help prevent a TNC result, employees should ensure that information listed on their documents is current and correct. For example, employees who changed their name will want to make those changes through the Social Security Administration (SSA) or the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to ensure their name appears correctly on these documents.
Any individual can also use the free myE-Verify Self-Check on the USCIS website at https://www.e-verify.gov/mye-verify to confirm their own employment eligibility.
Required Federal Notices/Posters
Enrollment in E-Verify requires all departments/units to post both the English and Spanish versions of the following notices. As with other required employment posters, they should be posted in a conspicuous place where employees can readily observe them. These notices must be posted in all departments/units across the University, regardless of whether support is provided by a federal contract.