USCIS has announced a new requirement that E-Verify employers take action on Tentative Nonconfirmations (TNCs) within 10 business days of issuance. The 10 days are defined as 10 federal government working days.

• When an employer enters a new hire’s information and receives a TNC, it must provide notice to the employee and then the employee chooses whether to contest the TNC or not. At that point, the employer should update the E-Verify case to indicate the employee’s choice.

• Previously, E-Verify did not put a specific deadline on when the case had to be updated with this information. This resulted in many TNC cases remaining open without action for a long time. So USCIS has added a deadline to ensure that cases keep moving forward.

• This does not mean that the TNC must be completely resolved within 10 days. It just means that the employee must make a choice and the employer must update the E-Verify case accordingly within 10 days. If the employee chooses to contest the TNC, then the case will remain open until it is resolved by the government - and there is no deadline for that to happen.

To summarize, these are the actions an employer must take within 10 days after issuance of a TNC:

• Notify your employee of their TNC result as soon as possible.

• 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.

• Tell the employee he or she has to decide whether to take action on the TNC by the 10th federal government working day after the TNC is issued.

  • If your employee does not give you their decision by the end of the 10th day, then you close the case.  The updated E-Verify User Manual confirms that E-Verify will be unable to confirm the person’s authorization to work, and the employer can then terminate their employment. 

  • If the employee chooses not to take action on the TNC, the employer will update E-Verify accordingly, close the case, and may terminate employment.

  • For the last possibility, if the employee chooses to contest the TNC, the employer will update E-Verify accordingly and follow the process indicated to provide the employee instructions on what to do next. The employer then waits for a case resolution in E-Verify, which can take days, weeks, or even months.

E-Verify is often a quick and simple system, but when a TNC is issued the process becomes much more complicated and employers are in danger of breaking E-Verify rules or unlawfully terminating employment. Violating E-Verify rules can result in additional audits of the employer’s E-Verify, I-9, and other practices, and can even result in being kicked out of the E-Verify program altogether. If you operate in a state that requires enrollment in E-Verify, you could lose your ability to continue to do business if you are kicked out of the program.

Thankfully, you can put clear practices in place to avoid such a drastic result. Give us a call if you’d like to make sure your business is protected!