E-Verify
On January 1, 2007, the State of North Carolina mandated that all state agencies, including its public universities and community colleges, use the E-Verify system.
The E-Verify System
E-Verify is a free, Internet-based system operated by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), which is a part of Department of Homeland Security (DHS). E-Verify electronically compares information contained on the Form I-9 with records contained in the Social Security Administration (SSA) and DHS databases to help employers verify the identity and employment eligibility of newly hired employees. An E-Verify query must be made for all new hires at the University, and cannot be used to selectively input some new hires but not others.
The E-Verify system is not to be used to verify information for employees already hired by the university, even if in another department or college. The E-Verify system also does not replace the requirement of employers to complete an I-9 form for all new employees within three days of hire.
The E-Verify system requires that (a) the I-9 form be completed first, and retained according to specific retention rules, and (b) the information from the I-9 form be entered into the E-Verify system to confirm the person’s identity and employment eligibility.
NC State Access to E-Verify
After NC State University registered online to gain access to E-Verify, we reviewed and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that provides the terms of agreement between NC State, SSA, and DHS. At NC State we have only one MOU, but we have many users in departments (including off-campus locations) who complete I-9 forms and access E-Verify.
Once we registered and signed the MOU, we designated key personnel contacts in each of our colleges and major divisions as Program Administrators to facilitate proper access and user updates. Program Administrators can create user accounts for new General Users, as well as view reports, perform queries, update profile information, and unlock user accounts.
All system users must complete a free, online tutorial on the E-Verify website. They should also review the User Manual and MOU, which are also available on the website. The tutorial explains the E-Verify process in great detail, and provides step-by-step examples of how to successfully enter a query. Once a user has completed the online tutorial, s/he may begin entering data from I-9 forms into the system to verify employment eligibility. We can have an unlimited number of “General Users” across campus who enter queries into the system.
E-Verify Queries
We must initiate an E-Verify query no later than the end of three business days after the new hire’s actual start date, and after the I-9 form has been completed by both the new employee and the department or college personnel representative.
- The E-Verify system also requires that the new hire have a valid Social Security Number (SSN).
- If the new employee does not yet have a SSN, the employer should wait to run the E-Verify query until that employee has received a SSN.
The I-9 form itself must still be completed within three days of hire, and a notation should be made to explain why the E-Verify query was not run within three days of hire.
To support the General Users and Program Administrators across campus, International Employment (IE) offers periodic training on I-9 and E-Verify processes, to refresh and update information as necessary for our “long time” users of the system, and also to provide training to new people who become responsible for these processes.
Confirmations and Nonconfirmations
In the vast majority of cases, the E-Verify system returns a virtually instantaneous result of “Employment Authorized.” If the result is “SSA tentative nonconfirmation,” “DHS verification in process,” or “DHS tentative nonconfirmation,” IE provides information to campus users on what to do in those situations. IE directly handles all DHS tentative nonconfirmations, and works individually with the affected employee to resolve those issues.
“SSA tentative non-confirmations” affect both U.S. citizens/permanent residents as well as foreign nationals. This is typically because of typos or misinformation keyed into the system at some point in the SSN application process. This type of nonconfirmation generally involves the new employee directly calling or visiting a local SSA office individually.
Foreign Nationals
NC State experiences hundreds of nonconfirmations at the start of each semester when foreign faculty and students are beginning on-campus assistantships or other employment. IE calls the DHS 1-888 number with the affected foreign national employee about his/her particular situation, to try to get the issue resolved so that they system will return a result of “employment authorized.” “DHS verifications in progress” and “DHS tentative non-confirmations” impact foreign national employees almost exclusively.
The issue resolution process is also time-sensitive, since E-Verify rules require that the individual initiate action with DHS (or SSA, depending upon the nonconfirmation) within eight (8) federal government workdays. Even if the issue is not resolved within the eight days, as long as the individual has contacted the appropriate agency within eight federal government workdays to initiate the resolution process, his or her employment can continue while the matter is pending. If the case is taking a long time to be resolved by SSA or DHS, either agency can put a case into "continuance" in the system; if it does so, it will instruct NC State to take no action against the employee until the matter is resolved.
Interactions between E-Verify and the SEVIS System
In addition, with regard to foreign student employees, departments will sometimes process a foreign student’s employment paperwork before the federal SEVIS system has been updated to reflect that the student has officially checked in at NC State to begin studies. The Office of International Services at NC State is responsible for updating the SEVIS system, and needs to see the foreign national student in its office before SEVIS can be appropriately updated.
If the SEVIS system is not properly updated, then the E-Verify system, which extracts some of its information from SEVIS, will automatically return a “DHS verification in progress” response. This will change to a “DHS tentative nonconfirmation” response within 24 hours. The only way to resolve this issue is for the foreign student to immediately check in with OIS when s/he arrives on campus, so that SEVIS can be updated. The foreign national will still ultimately need to make an appointment with IE to call the DHS 1-888 number, but it will not be possible to get the necessary “employment authorized” result without the person first having checked in with OIS.
E-Verify FAQs
E-Verify FAQs
Guiding Policies and Other Resources
