E-verify mandate underway in North Carolina

Following the lead of South Carolina, which was one of the first states to pass workforce immigration compliance legislation following the Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. Whiting ruling, North Carolina is now mandating the use of E-Verify for screening all new applicants.

North Carolina will phase in compliance, based upon the size of a company's workforce, as follows:

• Effective Oct. 1, 2012—employers with 500 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify to check work authorization for all new hires.
• Effective Jan. 1, 2013—employers with 100 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify to check work authorization for all new hires.
• Effective July 1, 2013—employers with 25 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify to check work authorization for all new hires.

For companies with multi-state workforces, the agency will consider just in-state employees towards the determination of the first date of enforcement.

At this time, the North Carolina legislation exempts employers with less than 25 employees as well as seasonal workers (but keep reading because federal requirements may still apply).

The N.C. Department of Labor has indicated that it will begin investigating complaints and initiating actions against the companies on the first date which the E-verify mandate applies to them. Employers will be fined $1,000 per each violation for the second offense and $2,000 per each violation for the third offense. Thus failure to screen all new hires can get expensive quickly.

Please bear in mind that when using E-verify, there are also federal guidelines which must be followed and the laws of any particular state do NOT supersede state laws and regulations. Among these are requirement that employers who use E-verify must use it to screen ALL new hires (as opposed to just some hires), must enter new hires within three days of their start date, and not use it to screen existing workers.

Therefore, when using E-verify, be sure to pay close attention to the subject material covered in the orientation and be fully aware of both federal AND state laws and regulations.

To find out more, the North Carolina Department of Labor has a webpage for immigration compliance: http://www.nclabor.com/legal/e_verify/e_verify.htm. There is also a federal E-Verify website where you can get more information about the program.