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Approving the I-9 form and Submitting E-Verify

I-9 and E-Verify go hand in hand. To ensure accurate record keeping of the submission to E-Verify, you need to ensure all employee information is correct before approving the I-9.

  1. After an employee completes their portion of the I-9, verify that all the information on the form is correct and check that it matches the employee’s supporting documents.

  2. If you are rehiring an employee, their documentation requirements may be different. Choose if this is a rehire or not.
  3. The certification page must be signed by the administrator who verified the employee’s documents. This information will be filled in on the I-9 form in Section 3.
  4. If you are using Greenshades to submit E-Verify cases, select Yes, I want to use E-Verify. Select Complete to submit the E-Verify case.

Viewing and handling E-Verify Cases

  1. After submitting a case to E-Verify, you may view case results or take action on cases by navigating to the E-Verify Cases screen. When the employee’s employment is authorized by E-Verify, the status will reflect Approved in the E-Verify Cases grid. There’s no further action required. You may review case details by clicking Review. Cases that require an action will display under Waiting for Review.
  2. Choose Go to next step to view case status and take action on any that need resolving. Some examples of case statuses that require follow-on are: (a) the photo needs verification, or (b) there is a Tentative Nonconfirmation, usually a resulting from a mismatch of information.

COMPLETING PHOTOMATCH REQUIRED

When an employee submits a type A document for verification, E-Verify will typically require verification that the document submitted matches what they have on file. We make completing this step easy. We show the verification document and display the E-Verify document for comparison.

If the photos match, select Yes, this photo matches to continue. If they do not match, select No, this photo does not match. Next, upload separate copies of both the front picture and the back of the document provided by the employee. This information will be sent to E-Verify for comparison.

MISMATCH INFORMATION / TENTATIVE NONCONFIRMATION

When an employee has a Tentative Nonconfirmation status, you must review the Further Action Notice with them and discuss how they wish to take action. The employee will have 10 government working days to inform you whether they will take action to resolve the case.

If the employee decides to take action, they must contact DHS and/or the SSA to rectify the issue.

If the employee decides not to take action, this may result in a Final Nonconfirmation status. E-Verify will make a determination after this status is submitted and the case will be updated with the next steps based on those results in Greenshades Online.

If the information was incorrect, choose this option. This will close the current case. In some cases, the form is incorrect due to employee name, date of birth, or SSN and will require an update to the employee profile. Once the data is correct, The employee should complete a new I-9 form, ensuring the information on the form is correct. The admin should verify the information is entered correctly on the form before approving and submitting to E-Verify again.

FINAL NONCONFIRMATION

If an employee receives a Final Nonconfirmation determination from E-Verify, their employment was not authorized. You must decide whether the employee will be terminated or continue employment, then enter your decision in the drop down before submitting and closing the case.

Understanding E-Verify Case statuses

EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZED – Most E-Verify cases receive a case result of Employment Authorized, which means that the information entered into E-Verify matched records available to DHS and/or SSA. This confirms employment eligibility of the associated employee whose information was entered. E-Verify automatically closes these cases resulting in Employment Authorized.

https://www.e-verify.gov/e-verify-user-manual-30-case-results/31-employment-authorized

E-VERIFY NEEDS MORE TIME – A case result of E-Verify Needs More Time means that DHS cannot verify the data and needs more time. The case is automatically referred for further verification. DHS will respond to most of these cases within 24 hours, although some responses may take up to 3 federal government working days. No action is required by either you or the employee at this time, but you can check the status daily for updates. Employers may not terminate or take any other adverse action against an employee (such as denying work, delaying training, withholding pay, or otherwise assuming that he or she is not authorized to work) because of the mismatch, until the mismatch becomes a Final Nonconfirmation.

https://www.e-verify.gov/e-verify-user-manual-30-case-results/32-e-verify-needs-more-time

MISMATCH/ TENTATIVE NONCONFIRMATION (TNC) – A mismatch means that the information entered for E-Verify does not match records available to DHS and/or SSA. It is possible for an employee to receive 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 DHS and SSA. E-Verify identifies the agency or agencies associated with the mismatch in the mismatch Further Action Notice. When E-Verify displays a mismatch case result, the employer must first notify the employee and complete the referral process as soon as possible, but no more thanwithin 10 federal government working days after E-Verify issued the mismatch result.

A case can result in a mismatch with DHS because:

  • 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.
  • Employer entered information incorrectly in E-Verify.
  • Photo did not match.
  • The employee’s citizenship or immigration status was not updated with SSA.
  • The employee did not report a name change to SSA.
  • The employee’s name, Social Security number and/or date of birth are incorrect in SSA records.
  • SSA records contain another type of mismatch.
  • The employer entered the employee’s information incorrectly in E-Verify.

Employers may not terminate, suspend, delay training, withhold or lower pay, or take any other adverse action against an employee because the employee received a mismatch. If the mismatch becomes a Final Nonconfirmation, the employer may terminate the employee.

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.

If the employee does not give the employer their decision by the end of the 10th federal government working day after E-Verify issued the mismatch result, the employer should close the case in E-Verify. E-Verify will be unable to confirm the employee is authorized to work in United States and the employer can terminate employment.

Next Steps

Notify the employee of the Mismatch

Confirm the employee’s decision - After the employee is notified of the mismatch and decides whether to take action to resolve the case result, the employee should acknowledge the decision on the Further Action Notice. Employees who choose to take action on a mismatch are referred to DHS and/or SSA. If a dual mismatch is received, the employee will be referred to both DHS and SSA if he or she chooses to take action. To resolve a DHS or SSA mismatch, employees should follow the steps outlined in the Confirm Employee Decision and Refer Case – Process Overview.

An employee has eight federal government working days to take action

  • DHS mismatch: Call DHS to begin to resolve
  • SSA mismatch: Visit an SSA field office to begin resolving
  • SSA citizenship mismatch: Call DHS or visit an SSA field office to begin resolving

If an employee chooses to take action to resolve a DHS mismatch issued because of a state motor vehicles agency mismatch, the employee must call DHS within 8 federal government working days after the case is referred. If DHS is unable to resolve the case, the employee may need to contact the state motor vehicles agency that issued the driver’s license or state identification card.

An employee who chooses to take action to resolve a dual mismatch is only given eight federal government working days to call DHS and visit SSA to begin resolving both mismatches after the case is referred. Federal government working days are Monday through Friday (except for federal holidays).

Give the employee the Referral Date Confirmation, and provide applicable documentation from E-Verify. The Referral Date Confirmation provides the date by which the employee must call DHS and/or visit SSA. The employee should bring the Further Action Notice when he or she visits an SSA field office.

If the photos do not match during E-Verify photo matching, E-Verify will prompt the employer to upload copies of the employee’s photo document and the case may result in a mismatch. When this happens, the employer must notify the employee of the mismatch and allow the employee to choose whether or not to take action to resolve the mismatch. If the employee decides to take action on the photo mismatch, the employer must refer the case in E-Verify and the employee must contact DHS to begin resolving the mismatch within eight federal government working days after the case is referred.

Refer Employee to DHS or SSA

An employee who chooses to take action to resolve a DHS mismatch must call DHS within eight federal government working days to begin resolving the mismatch. An employee who chooses to take action to resolve an SSA mismatch must visit an SSA field office within eight federal government working days to begin resolving the mismatch.

Give the employee the Referral Date Confirmation from E-Verify. The Referral Date Confirmation provides the date by which the employee must call DHS or visit SSA. The employee should bring the SSA Further Action Notice when they visit an SSA field office.

If the employer fails to match photos during E-Verify photo matching, a photo mismatch may result. A photo mismatch requires the employer to take an additional step to refer the case but follows the same requirements of any mismatch. If the employee chooses to take action to resolve the photo mismatch, the employer must refer the employee to DHS and send a copy of the Form I-9 photo document to E-Verify. Follow the steps outlined in the Refer Employee to DHS or SSA – Process Overview to complete the mismatch process.

https://www.e-verify.gov/e-verify-user-manual-30-case-results/33-tentative-nonconfirmation-mismatch

Review and Update Employee Data

If SSA finds a discrepancy in the information it received in the E-Verify referral, E-Verify will issue a prompt for the employer to review and update the employee’s information.

CASE IN CONTINUANCE - A Case in Continuance status indicates that the employee has contacted DHS and/or visited an SSA field office, but more time is needed to determine a final case result. The reason DHS or SSA needs more time varies with each situation. Employers should check E-Verify periodically for case result updates. Employers may not terminate or take any other adverse action against an employee (such as denying work, delaying training, withholding pay, or otherwise assuming that they are not authorized to work) because of the mismatch, until the mismatch becomes a Final Nonconfirmation.

https://www.e-verify.gov/e-verify-user-manual-30-case-results/34-case-in-continuance

CLOSE CASE AND RESUBMIT - Your employee’s case may receive a Close Case and Resubmit case result if DHS and/or SSA are unable to process the case and confirm employment eligibility. The employer should close the case in E-Verify and create a new case. When the user clicks Close and Create a New Case, the case is automatically closed and E-Verify opens a new case for the user to begin entering the employee’s information from Form I-9.

The employee will need to fill out the I-9 with the correct information. Please verify the information before resubmitting to E-Verify

Final Nonconfirmation - A case receives a Final Nonconfirmation case result when E-Verify cannot confirm an employee’s employment eligibility after:

  1. The employee has contacted DHS or visited an SSA field office during the mismatch referral process;
  2. The employee failed to call DHS and/or visit an SSA field office within 8 federal government working days; Or
  3. The employee did not give the employer their decision whether or not to take action by the end of the 10th federal government working day after E-Verify issued the mismatch result.

Employers must close the case once a case receives a Final Nonconfirmation result. The employer may terminate employment based on a case result of Final Nonconfirmation with no civil or criminal liability as noted in Responsibilities of the Employer, Article II, Section A, paragraph 13, of the MOU.

Keywords: E-Verify, employment authorization, DHS, SSA, I-9