E-Verify Number for Employers: Enrollment, Deadlines, and Mismatches

An E-Verify number for employers is the four- to seven-digit Company ID that the Department of Homeland Security assigns to your business when you enroll in E-Verify, the federal government’s free online system for confirming that new hires are authorized to work in the United States.¹ It appears on every page of the Memorandum of Understanding you sign during enrollment, directly below the E-Verify logo, and it ties every verification case you run back to your employer account.²

If you’ve already enrolled and just need to look up the number, program administrators who have completed the E-Verify tutorial can log in, open the Company Account tab, and select Company Profile.² Otherwise, pull up your signed MOU; the number is on every page.

When Enrollment Is Mandatory

Federal law doesn’t require every private employer to use E-Verify. All employers must complete Form I-9 for each new hire, and E-Verify is an additional electronic check layered on top of that paper process.³ Two situations remove the choice.

The first is federal contracting. Contractors and subcontractors whose contracts include the employment eligibility verification clause at FAR 52.222-54 must enroll and verify their workforce through E-Verify. The clause flows down to subcontracts worth more than $3,500 for services or construction performed in the United States.⁴ Win a covered contract, and you need to be enrolled before work begins.

The second is state law. A growing number of states require some or all private employers to use E-Verify. Requirements vary: some states mandate it for every employer, others only above a certain headcount or for state contractors. Penalties range from modest fines to suspension or revocation of your business license, and repeat violations escalate. Check your state’s rules before assuming enrollment is optional.

How to Enroll and Get Your Company ID

Registration happens entirely online at E-Verify.gov and costs nothing. The federal government charges no fee to enroll or to run verification cases.¹

Before you start, gather the following:⁵

Your Employer Identification Number (EIN). This is your federal tax ID, and it’s separate from the Company ID you’ll receive.
Your company’s legal name and physical address for the primary location that will access the system.
Each state where you have hiring sites that will participate.
Your NAICS industry classification code.
Contact information for the company signatory and the program administrator.

During enrollment you sign the MOU with DHS spelling out your obligations, and the system then issues your Company ID.

Deadlines for Running a Case

Timing is tighter than many employers expect. You must create an E-Verify case no later than the third business day after the employee’s first day of work for pay.⁶ Miss that window and the system will ask you to explain why.

You can create a case as early as 90 business days before the start date, but only after the person has accepted a job offer and you’ve completed the Form I-9.⁷ Prescreening applicants before a job offer is prohibited.

What the Results Mean

Once you enter the I-9 data using your Company ID, the system checks it against Social Security Administration and DHS records, often within seconds.³ You’ll get one of three results:

Employment Authorized. The records confirm work eligibility, and you close the case.
Tentative Nonconfirmation, also called a mismatch. The data doesn’t match government records, and a specific process kicks in.
DHS or SSA Case in Continuance. The agency needs more time to review.

Handling a Mismatch

A mismatch doesn’t mean the employee is unauthorized. It often traces to a name change, a data entry error, or records that haven’t been updated. What you do next is strictly regulated, and this is where employers most commonly get into trouble.

You have 10 federal government working days from the date the mismatch is issued to do all of the following:⁸

Notify the employee privately, and show them the Further Action Notice as soon as possible.
Review the information at the top of the notice with the employee to confirm the data is correct. If it’s wrong, close the case and create a new one with corrected information.
Ask whether the employee will contest. They have until the end of the 10th federal government working day to decide.

An employee who contests must contact DHS or visit an SSA office within eight federal government working days.⁸ If they decline to contest, you may treat the case as a Final Nonconfirmation and terminate employment without civil or criminal liability.

The rule that matters most during this window: you cannot fire, suspend, delay training, cut pay, or take any other adverse action against the employee based solely on the mismatch. Those protections last until the case reaches a Final Nonconfirmation.⁸

Anti-Discrimination Rules

Enrolling in E-Verify doesn’t give you broader authority to police immigration status. Selective or inconsistent use of the system can land you in a federal discrimination case. The Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits employers from discriminating based on citizenship status or national origin during the employment eligibility verification process.⁹

In practice:

Run E-Verify on all new hires, not selectively. Checking only employees who “look” or “sound” foreign is exactly the pattern the Department of Justice investigates.
Don’t prescreen applicants before a job offer is accepted.
Don’t reverify current employees unless a federal contract specifically requires it.
Don’t treat employees differently while a mismatch is being resolved.

The Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section enforces these rules, and penalties can include back pay, civil fines, and required changes to your hiring practices.

Posting and Data Security Duties

Once enrolled, you must display two posters at your worksite: the Notice of E-Verify Participation and the Right to Work poster. Both must appear in English and Spanish; other languages are optional.¹⁰

The MOU also creates real data security obligations. You agree to use E-Verify information only for employment eligibility verification, safeguard login credentials and personal data, and limit access to authorized users. If you experience a data breach involving E-Verify personal data, notify DHS immediately at 1-888-464-4218 or E-Verify@dhs.gov. Information received from SSA is governed by the Privacy Act and the Social Security Act, and misuse can carry criminal penalties.¹¹

Company ID Versus Other Numbers You’ll See

The Company ID gets confused with other identifiers that appear during hiring. Your EIN is a federal tax ID you need to register for E-Verify, but the two serve different purposes. The EIN identifies your business to the IRS; the Company ID identifies your business within E-Verify. You use both during enrollment, but only the Company ID matters when running cases.

USCIS numbers and Alien Registration Numbers (A-Numbers) belong to individuals, not employers. DHS assigns A-Numbers to noncitizens, and they run seven to nine digits.¹² You’ll see them on employee documents during the I-9 process, but they have nothing to do with your employer account.

1
E-Verify. What is E-Verify
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U.S. Department of Homeland Security. How Do I Find the Company ID Number
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E-Verify. E-Verify and Form I-9
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Acquisition.GOV. FAR 52.222-54 Employment Eligibility Verification
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E-Verify. Enrollment Checklist
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E-Verify. 2.2 Create a Case
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E-Verify. When Is the Earliest I Can Create a Case in E-Verify
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E-Verify. Tentative Nonconfirmations (Mismatches)
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U.S. Department of Justice. IER Identifying Possible E-Verify Related Employment Discrimination
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E-Verify. Must an Employer Who Displays a Poster in a Foreign Language Provide All E-Verify Communications in That Language
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E-Verify. The E-Verify Memorandum of Understanding for Employers
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A-Number/Alien Registration Number/Alien Number