U.S. government funding is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on December 20, 2024. A lapse in appropriations would cause a partial government shutdown impacting multiple services. Importantly, a lapse in appropriations would take the E-Verify system and E-Verify support offline.

In the event of a shutdown, Employers would not be able to create new E-Verify cases or resolve tentative nonconfirmations (TNCs). Employers would not be expected to meet the usual E-Verify deadline until the program is reauthorized. However, all employers and employees remain subject to Form I-9 obligations and deadlines even if E-Verify is offline. Employers may still complete Form I-9 using virtual procedures even if E-Verify is offline. Employers must create an E-Verify case for each new hire once E-Verify resumes operations.

For those clients utilizing any i9Success solution along with i9Success' auto-E-Verify service, no action is necessary; the E-Verify case will be created automatically when E-Verify operations resume.

Clients not enrolled in i9Success' auto-E-Verify service will have to create the cases manually after E-Verify resumes operations. Clients can easily retrieve reports of Forms I-9 created during the shutdown to facilitate this using the myBIG portal instead of having to manually record which new hires have not been entered into the E-Verify system.

While USCIS has not given any guidance pertaining to this particular potential shutdown, historically, USCIS has extended the time period in which employees may resolve TNCs by the number of days the federal government was closed. Employers should select "other" and enter "federal government shutdown" when prompted to provide a reason why the case was being created more than three days after the employee began working.

Employers are reminded not to take any adverse action against an employee because of an E-Verify interim status case during a federal government shutdown.

Clients are encouraged to archive all E-Verify communications related to the outage and record all Forms I-9 completed during the outage. Archiving correspondence related to E-Verify outages allows organizations to justify delayed submissions/case creation in the event of a state or federal E-Verify audit. Organizations that do this will have a documented trail of when the outage occurred, the duration, and all Forms I-9 created during that time.

This is an evolving situation that BIG is monitoring and will continue to inform our clients of updates as they become available.

Posted: December 19, 2024

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