The Written Verification of Employment form, Fannie Mae Form 1005, is not something you fill out yourself. The lender completes the request portion, you sign the authorization, and your employer completes the wage and employment history. A blank copy is available on Fannie Mae’s forms page at singlefamily.fanniemae.com.1Fannie Mae. Selling & Servicing Guide Forms Your job as the borrower is to give the lender accurate information at the start, sign the release, and stay out of the document’s path once it leaves for your employer.
Who Completes Each Part
Form 1005 has three parts, each handled by a different party. The order matters. Part II must be signed before the employer sees the form, and the completed Part III goes straight back to the lender without passing through your hands.
Part I: The Lender’s Request
The lender fills in the mortgage loan number, your identifying information, and the employer’s name and address. This tells the employer who the request is about and where to return it. You don’t touch this section, but check that your employer’s legal name and contact details are right before it goes out. A misdirected request is the most common cause of delay.
Part II: Your Authorization
This is your signature authorizing the employer to release your wage and employment data to the lender. You sign and date it, and that written consent lets the employer share compensation information. Without your signature, no employer will release the details. Most lenders have you sign Part II during the initial loan application.
Part III: The Employer’s Verification
Your employer’s HR or payroll representative completes Part III. This is the substance of the form, the data the underwriter actually relies on:
- Employment dates, including hire date and, if applicable, termination date.
- Current base pay: salary or hourly rate and pay frequency.
- Year-to-date gross earnings for the current calendar year.
- Overtime, bonuses, and commissions, broken out separately with historical figures so the underwriter can judge whether that income is stable enough to count toward qualifying.
Some fields are optional. Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide lists “probability of continued employment,” “is continuance of overtime or bonus likely,” projected and past pay increase amounts and dates, and “reason for leaving” (on prior-employer verifications) as fields the employer may leave blank.2Fannie Mae. Standards for Employment and Income Documentation Every other field must be completed as applicable, and an authorized officer of the employer signs at the bottom certifying the data matches payroll records.
What You Need to Give the Lender First
Because the form moves directly from lender to employer, your only real task on the front end is supplying clean information. Have this ready before the lender generates the form:
- Your full legal name as it appears on your government ID, your Social Security number, and current home address.
- Your employer’s legal entity name, exactly as it appears on your pay stub or W-2. Not a parent company, not a trade name. The wrong name can send the form to the wrong office or come back unanswered.
- A direct phone number and mailing address for the HR representative or payroll department that handles verification requests. Many companies route these through a dedicated contact or a third-party verification vendor.
If your employer uses a third-party service like Equifax’s The Work Number, tell your lender early. That changes the routing and often speeds things up.
How the Form Travels
The routing follows a strict chain of custody meant to prevent tampering. After you sign Part II, the lender sends the form directly to your employer’s HR or payroll office by encrypted email, secure fax, or mail. You do not deliver it in person, and you do not handle the completed form after your employer fills in the wage data.1Fannie Mae. Selling & Servicing Guide Forms
Your employer returns Part III directly to the lender or the lender’s designated third-party verification service. This direct-return rule exists because if a borrower could intercept the completed form, the income figures could be altered before reaching the underwriter. Most employers turn requests around in two to five business days, and those on automated payroll platforms often move faster.
What Happens if the Numbers Don’t Match
Once the lender receives the completed form, the underwriter compares reported income against what you stated on the loan application. Aligned figures move the file forward. A base salary lower than claimed, missing bonus income, or mismatched employment dates triggers additional underwriting review, not an IRS audit. The lender will ask for supporting documents like recent pay stubs, W-2s, or tax transcripts to resolve the gap. A missing employer signature also bounces the form back for completion.
Income the underwriter cannot verify as stable and likely to continue gets excluded from qualifying. Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide requires that borrowers qualify using only income the lender can reasonably expect to continue for the foreseeable future, and if the income has a defined expiration date it must be expected to last at least three years from the note date.3Fannie Mae. General Income Information That is why the bonus and overtime history on Part III matters so much: sporadic overtime with no track record often gets dropped from the calculation.
When Your Employer Won’t Respond
An unresponsive employer is one of the more frustrating delays in mortgage underwriting. Companies are not legally required to complete Form 1005, and some small businesses lack dedicated HR staff to handle the request. A few practical steps help:
- Alert your supervisor or HR contact that a verification request is coming before the lender sends it. An unexpected request from a bank sometimes gets ignored.
- Ask whether your employer uses a third-party verification vendor. If so, the lender can pull data directly instead of waiting for a form.
- Offer alternative documentation. If the employer simply won’t cooperate, the lender can often build the income file from recent pay stubs, W-2s, and bank statements showing direct deposits, though requirements vary by underwriter.
Persistent non-response won’t automatically kill a loan, but it can push your closing date back. Flag any concern early so your loan officer has time to route around it.
When Form 1005 Isn’t Used
The written form is designed for traditional W-2 employment. Two categories of borrowers follow different paths.
Active-duty military borrowers can substitute a Leave and Earnings Statement dated within 120 calendar days of the note date, or the lender can verify employment through the Defense Manpower Data Center. Neither requires a Form 1005.4Fannie Mae. Verbal Verification of Employment
Self-employed borrowers don’t use Form 1005 at all. The lender verifies the existence of the business within 120 calendar days of the note date through a CPA, a regulatory agency, a licensing bureau, or by confirming a phone listing and business address. Income verification then relies on tax returns and other financial documentation.4Fannie Mae. Verbal Verification of Employment
Many lenders also skip the paper form entirely by using Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter validation service, which pulls income and employment data electronically from approved vendors. When DU validates employment through one of these vendors, it satisfies the written verification requirement.5Fannie Mae. DU Validation Service If your employer participates in one of these payroll databases, closing often moves faster because no one has to manually complete and return a form.
The Verbal Check Before Closing
Form 1005 is not the last step. Fannie Mae requires a separate verbal verification of employment for every borrower using employment income to qualify. It must be completed within 10 business days before the note date to confirm you are still employed at closing.4Fannie Mae. Verbal Verification of Employment
The lender must independently look up your employer’s phone number rather than using one you provide, then call and confirm your current employment. The lender documents the name and title of the person who confirmed employment, the date of the call, and the source of the phone number.
Several alternatives satisfy the requirement:
- Written verification from the employer within 10 business days of closing.
- An email exchange from the employer’s work email address within 10 business days, with the lender independently verifying the address is legitimate.
- A recent pay stub within 15 business days of closing that reflects the most recent pay period and shows no sign of separation.
- Bank statements within 15 business days showing direct deposit consistent with your pay schedule.
If your employer uses a third-party verification vendor, the lender can obtain written verification from that vendor within the same timeframe.4Fannie Mae. Verbal Verification of Employment Expect this final check in the days right before your closing date, and avoid any employment changes during that window.