E-Verify works by comparing the information employees provide for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, against records available to SSA and DHS. Generally, if the information matches, the employee’s case receives an Employment Authorized result in E-Verify. If the information does not match, the case will receive a Tentative Nonconfirmation (Mismatch) result and the employer must give the employee an opportunity to take action to resolve the mismatch.
Employers must understand and follow the proper E-Verify procedures which are designed to ensure fair treatment and due process for all employees.
If E-Verify cannot instantly confirm employment eligibility, it must manually review government records. DHS will respond to most of these cases within 24 hours.
It is possible for E-Verify to issue a dual mismatch, which means the case received a mismatch result from both agencies at the same time because information entered into E-Verify does not match records available to both SSA and DHS
E-Verify identifies the agency or agencies associated with the mismatch in the Further Action Notice.
Employers must complete the following steps in E-Verify within 10 federal government working days after issuance of the mismatch result:
- Notify your employee of their mismatch result as soon as possible within the 10 days.
- Give your employee a copy of the Further Action Notice.
- Review the Further Action Notice with your employee in private and have them confirm whether the information listed at the top is correct.
- If the information is incorrect, close the case and select the statement indicating the information was not correct. After the case is closed, create a new case for your employee with the correct information.
- If the information is correct, proceed to the next step.
- The employee will decide whether to take action on the mismatch. Tell your employee they have 10 days from issuance of the mismatch to notify you whether they will take action to resolve the mismatch.
- If your employee does not give you their decision by the end of the 10th federal government working day after E-Verify issued the mismatch, then you close the case. Please see E-Verify User Manual for more information on closing cases in E-Verify.
Starting November 5, 2020, E-Verify will begin notifying employers not in compliance with this legal requirement to take action to meet the requirement. This requirement promotes E-Verify system integrity and will help ensure employers close E-Verify cases according to the requirements of the E-Verify User Manual.
A mismatch for an information mismatch against SSA records may result because:
- The employee has not updated his or her citizenship or immigration status with SSA
- The employee did not report a name change to SSA
- The employee’s name, Social Security number or date of birth is incorrect in SSA records
- SSA records contain another type of mismatch
- The employer entered the employee’s information incorrectly in E-Verify
A case can result in a mismatch with DHS because the employee’s:
- Name, Alien Number, Form I-94 number and/or foreign passport number are incorrect in DHS records
- U.S. passport, passport card, driver’s license, state ID, or foreign passport information could not be verified
- Information was not updated in the employee’s DHS records
- Citizenship or immigration status changed
- Record contains another type of error
- Information was entered incorrectly in E-Verify by the employer
IMPORTANT: Employers may not terminate, suspend, delay training, withhold or lower pay, or take any other adverse action against an employee because of the mismatch, until the mismatch becomes a Final Nonconfirmation. If the employee chooses not to take action on the mismatch, the employer may terminate employment with no civil or criminal liability as noted in “Responsibilities of the Employer,” Article II, Section A paragraph 13 of the MOU. The case can be treated as a Final Nonconfirmation and the employer should close the case in E-Verify.
