E-Verify and the future of I-9 compliance: What HR teams need to know in 2025

Hiring at scale is no small feat. Sourcing and interviewing hundreds (or even thousands) of candidates is challenging enough. But managing all of the compliance paperwork quickly, efficiently, and keeping it error-free? It’s enough to make any HR person sweat—especially when you throw a remote-first workplace into the mix.

E-Verify has come to represent a valuable safeguard for organizations conquering this challenge, helping them validate employment eligibility to protect both the business and the employee. 

Until now, E-Verify has been optional for many organizations. However, this could change soon. With potential regulatory changes expected after the 2024 presidential election, HR teams may need to prepare for a future where E-Verify becomes mandatory in more states. Here’s what this means for your organization in 2025.

E-Verify and the shifting compliance landscape: Regulatory changes on the horizon

E-Verify has become an essential tool for organizations navigating the challenges of employment verification at scale. It cross-checks the information on the I-9 form alongside millions of government records, providing organizations with a safety net to diagnose errors, missing information, and identity fraud. 

Currently, E-Verify is required in the following key situations:

• Federal employees and contractors: Organizations operating under federal contracts that have E-Verify as a requirement.
• Remote hiring: Organizations hiring remotely must enroll in E-Verify for all hires from the same hiring site.
• Specific industries: Industries with higher levels of scrutiny, such as agriculture or manufacturing, may be subject to state or local E-Verify requirements.
• State mandates: Some states, including Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, require E-Verify enrollment when an organization’s workforce hits a specific threshold.

However, as a new administration comes into power, the requirements surrounding E-Verify could be set to change as a result of stricter controls at the federal and state levels. Reforms to immigration policy, for example, are likely to focus on employment verification as a way of cracking down on unauthorized and undocumented employees more effectively. 

Shifting regulatory requirements are likely to spell more compliance audits (and more paperwork) to ensure organizations are adhering to evolving standards.

Both of these changes could mean E-Verify moves from being a supportive measure for new hire compliance to a mechanism that actively enforces it.

Some states and industries are already setting the pace for this shift. In February 2024 for example, the state of Iowa passed a bill that now requires organizations to register with E-Verify as a way of vetting immigration status. The Ohio House of Representatives passed a similar bill in May 2024. Meanwhile, Idaho’s proposed bill to make E-Verify a requirement for all employers has been up for debate since 2024.

Momentum is clearly growing for an E-Verify-enabled model for hiring. So what next for HR teams?

What do the E-Verify changes mean for employers?

While we don’t know exactly what these regulatory changes may entail, what we do know is that mandatory E-Verify for organizations is likely to have a downstream impact on new hire compliance, onboarding workflows, and the employee experience.

Getting ahead now will pay dividends down the line.

In the near term, employers will need to review their current new hire compliance resources, processes, and policies, and proactively identify any bottlenecks or weak links that could be leaving the organization open to risk. Running an internal audit is essential here, as it can help teams spot capacity gaps or inefficiencies.

Long-term, employers will need to rebuild their process in line with changing requirements and embed more stringent verification processes into their compliance workflow to avoid the risk of penalties. This might include:

• Building out new training models to educate HR teams and internal stakeholders on how to use E-Verify, and managing more complex cases through the platform.
• Creating standardized processes across all hiring locations to ensure that compliance stays consistent, efficient, and accurate.
• Investing in automated, E-Verify-compliant software to help mitigate the additional administrative burden.
• Creating automated workflows that streamline key compliance tasks, including data entry and document verification.

Building processes with flexibility and adaptability as their foundation is critical to making sure organizations can stay nimble as new changes roll out. 

E-Verify’s role in protecting your organization

As HR teams adapt to looming regulatory changes, E-Verify may become more than just a compliance mechanism for organizations. Instead, it can become an important part of your organization’s compliance guardrails that help protect the business from identity fraud, hefty penalties, and operational risks.

But the key to unlocking its full potential lies in getting the right workflows and processes in place first. When implemented effectively, E-Verify offers a number of benefits that protect both your organization and your employees, and help you:

• Maintain high compliance and regulatory standards.
• Eliminate the risk of penalties from I-9 errors and inconsistencies by ensuring accurate and efficient verification.
• Verify the work eligibility of new hires, mitigating the risk of hiring unauthorized workers.
• Streamline your hiring and onboarding process for new hires with immediate confirmation of employee eligibility, speeding up time-to-value.
• Protect your organization from reputational damage and legal challenges.

Effortless E-Verify with WorkBright

With shifts in the regulatory landscape incoming, the growing adoption of E-Verify could spell trouble for under-resourced HR teams—especially those already struggling to manage the complexities of I-9 processes and high-volume hiring. 

But if teams take the time to review their processes, policies, and tech infrastructure now, they can proactively address existing bottlenecks, streamline processes, and implement the training needed to stay compliant while staying ahead of the law.

Implementing the right tech is an essential part of this equation. WorkBright’s E-Verify integration offers a fully compliant, automated solution to help teams navigate regulatory changes without missing a beat. Instantly verify new hire eligibility, fully compliantly—from anywhere. Find out more.