E-Verify+ is a brand new program from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that was run in pilot for about a year and rolled out more formally to all employers on Sept. 9, 2024. The goal of the program is to (1) shift the burden of validating the employee’s authorization to work from the employer to the employee; (2) do so within an electronic I-9 tool embedded within the E-Verify system; and (3) once an employee has had his or her employment authorization validated in E-Verify+, the employee would not have to keep redoing the E-Verify process at each employer (but would still need to do a new I-9 with each new employer).

DHS has made it very easy to enroll by having a banner on the home page encouraging employers to convert regular enrollment to E-Verify+. There are already over 1,100 employers in the new program. Response has been overwhelmingly positive, but there are still pain points and unclear guidance on how the electronic I-9s would be stored and accessed in the event of a future I-9 audit. This lack of clear guidance leaves participating employers vulnerable to very significant fines in the event of an audit.