Florida’s E-Verify law requires every public employer and every private employer with 25 or more employees to confirm each new hire’s work eligibility through the federal E-Verify system within three business days of the employee’s first paid day of work. The private-employer mandate has been in force since July 1, 2023, when Senate Bill 1718 expanded a 2020 law that previously reached only public employers and their contractors.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility Skip the process and the Department of Commerce can impose fines of $1,000 per day and move to suspend your state-issued licenses.
Who Has to Use E-Verify
Florida Statute 448.095 sorts employers into two groups with different obligations.
Public employers are covered without exception. Every public agency in the state must run new hires through E-Verify, and any company that contracts with a public agency, along with any subcontractor under that company, must enroll in and use the system.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
Private employers are covered once they reach 25 employees. Businesses under that headcount are not currently required to use E-Verify, though they must still complete a Form I-9 for every new hire under federal law. A bill under consideration in the Florida legislature in early 2026, House Bill 197, would remove the 25-employee threshold and extend the mandate to every private employer in the state. If it passes, size stops mattering.
Who Counts as an Employee
The statute defines an employee as someone filling a permanent position who works under the employer’s direction in exchange for pay. Independent contractors are explicitly excluded. So is anyone hired for casual labor performed entirely inside a private residence.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
The statute does not directly address how part-time or seasonal workers factor into the 25-employee count. Because the definition references “permanent positions,” an employer with a mix of permanent and truly seasonal staff has room to evaluate the threshold carefully. Enrolling voluntarily is free and eliminates the ambiguity for anyone hovering near the line.
The Three-Business-Day Deadline
Florida law requires employers to complete E-Verify within three business days after the new employee’s first day of paid work.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility That matches the federal E-Verify deadline.2E-Verify. Why Must an E-Verify Case Be Created Three Days After Hiring an Employee Three days moves quickly when several people start the same week, so building the check into day-one paperwork keeps you inside the window.
E-Verify itself is a free online system operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security. It compares the Form I-9 information you enter against Social Security Administration and DHS records to confirm work authorization.3E-Verify. E-Verify and Form I-9
Enrolling the Company
Enrollment happens online at E-Verify.gov and costs nothing. You will need your company name, a physical address for each hiring site, your Employer Identification Number, contact details for a program administrator, and someone authorized to sign the memorandum of understanding with DHS. The entire enrollment can be completed in one session.4E-Verify. The Enrollment Process
If the System Is Down
When E-Verify is unavailable and you cannot run a check inside the three-day window, Florida law directs you to complete the standard Form I-9 instead and document the outage. Acceptable proof includes screenshots of the error, public announcements from DHS about downtime, or other recorded notices showing the system was inaccessible.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
When E-Verify Flags a Mismatch
A Tentative Nonconfirmation, or mismatch, means the system could not immediately confirm eligibility. It does not mean the person is unauthorized to work. Often the cause is something ordinary, like a name change never reported to the Social Security Administration.
You must notify the employee of the mismatch as soon as possible, and no later than 10 federal government working days after E-Verify issued it. Provide them with a Further Action Notice, review it in private, and have them mark whether they intend to contest the result. The employee signs and dates the notice, keeps a copy, and you attach the original to their Form I-9.5E-Verify. Notify Employee of Mismatch If the employee does not speak English well, provide a translated version.
If they contest, they have eight federal government working days after the case is referred to begin resolving it with SSA or DHS. Throughout that period, you cannot fire, suspend, cut pay, delay training, or take any other adverse action against the employee because of the mismatch.6E-Verify. Tentative Nonconfirmations (Mismatches) This is where compliance most often breaks down. Pulling someone off the schedule “just to be safe” violates federal rules and invites a discrimination claim.
If the employee declines to contest, or if the agencies cannot confirm eligibility after the employee tries to resolve it, the case becomes a Final Nonconfirmation. At that point you may terminate employment without civil or criminal liability, and you must close the case in E-Verify.7E-Verify. Final Nonconfirmation
Records and the Annual Tax Certification
Florida requires employers to keep a copy of the documentation used during verification, along with any official verification the system produces, for at least three years.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility Those records are your audit defense, so store them somewhere they can actually be retrieved.
Every employer required to use E-Verify must also certify compliance on its first Florida reemployment tax return filed each calendar year. The certification goes to the state’s tax service provider when you make unemployment compensation or reemployment assistance contributions.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility You can submit the certification on paper using forms like the RT-6 or through the state’s online filing system.8Florida Department of Revenue. New Employee Eligibility and E-Verify FAQs Miss the annual certification and you flag your business for scrutiny, so put it on the tax-season checklist.
Penalties for Noncompliance
The Department of Commerce enforces the statute through a graduated structure. Employers get a chance to fix problems before penalties bite, but repeated violations get expensive fast.
On the first finding of noncompliance, the Department notifies you in writing and gives you 30 days to cure the problem.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
If the Department finds you failed to use E-Verify three times within any 24-month period, it must impose a fine of $1,000 per day until you provide proof that the problem is resolved. Ongoing noncompliance is also grounds for suspending all state-issued business licenses until you cure the violation.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
Enforcement against private employers took effect July 1, 2024, one year after the verification mandate itself. The grace period is over. At $1,000 a day, a few weeks past a third finding runs into tens of thousands of dollars, and a suspended license effectively closes the business until the issue is fixed.
Stricter Rules for Public-Agency Contractors
If your business contracts with a Florida public agency, the requirements go further than the general private-employer rules. Every public agency contract must require the contractor and any subcontractors to register with and use E-Verify. Neither the agency nor the contractor may enter the contract unless all parties are enrolled.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
Subcontractors must provide the general contractor with a signed affidavit stating they do not employ unauthorized workers, and the contractor keeps that affidavit on file for the duration of the contract. If the agency has a good faith belief that a contractor knowingly hired unauthorized workers, it must terminate the contract. That termination is not treated as a breach, and the terminated contractor is barred from receiving any public contract for at least one year. The contractor also owes any additional costs the agency incurs because of the termination.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
A contractor or subcontractor who believes the termination was unjustified can challenge it in circuit or county court, but must file within 20 calendar days of the termination date. That window is narrow.
Anti-Discrimination Guardrails
Running E-Verify does not give you room to treat workers differently based on how they look or sound. The Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits unfair immigration-related employment practices, including discriminating against someone during hiring or firing because of national origin or citizenship status.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S. Code 1324b – Unfair Immigration-Related Employment Practices
In practice, apply the same verification process to every new hire. You cannot selectively run E-Verify on employees who look or sound foreign-born while skipping others. You also cannot demand specific documents during the I-9 process. If an employee presents valid documents from the list of acceptable options, you accept them, even if you would prefer a different combination.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Types of Employment Discrimination Prohibited Under the INA Demanding extra documents from certain employees is one of the most common violations, and during an audit it tends to appear as a pattern that is hard to explain.