Florida E-Verify Law: Who Must Comply, Deadlines, and Penalties

The Florida E-Verify law requires every public employer and every private employer with 25 or more employees to confirm each new hire’s work authorization through the federal E-Verify system within three business days of the employee’s first paid day of work. The private-employer requirement took effect on July 1, 2023, under Senate Bill 1718, which expanded a 2020 statute that had applied only to public employers and their contractors.¹ Enforcement for private employers began a year later, on July 1, 2024, and the Department of Commerce can now impose fines of $1,000 per day and move to suspend state-issued business licenses for repeat violations.

Who Has to Use E-Verify in Florida

Florida Statute 448.095 splits employers into two groups.

Every public agency must use E-Verify for all new hires. Any company that contracts with a public agency, and any subcontractor working under that company, must also enroll in and use the system.¹

On the private side, any business with 25 or more employees must run every new hire through E-Verify. Smaller private employers are not currently covered by the state mandate, though they still have to complete a federal Form I-9 for every new hire. A bill under consideration in early 2026, House Bill 197, would remove the 25-employee threshold and extend the mandate to every private employer in the state. Until that passes, the threshold stands.

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 excluded, and so is anyone hired for casual labor performed entirely inside a private residence.¹ The law does not spell out how part-time or seasonal workers count toward the 25-employee threshold, but because the definition references “permanent positions,” employers with a heavy mix of seasonal staff should evaluate the question carefully. Using E-Verify voluntarily is free and removes the uncertainty.

The Three-Business-Day Deadline

E-Verify is a free online system run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security. It compares the information from a new hire’s Form I-9 against records at the Social Security Administration and DHS to confirm work authorization.²

Florida law requires employers to complete verification within three business days after the new employee’s first day of paid work.¹ That matches the federal E-Verify deadline.³ Three days is tight. The practical fix is to run E-Verify as part of day-one onboarding paperwork rather than letting it drift down the task list.

If the E-Verify system itself is unavailable and you cannot submit a case within the window, Florida law requires you to complete the standard Form I-9 and document the outage. Screenshots of the error, public DHS announcements of downtime, or other recorded notices showing the system was inaccessible are acceptable proof.¹

Enrolling in E-Verify

Before you can verify anyone, your company needs an E-Verify account. Enrollment is free and done entirely online at E-Verify.gov. You will need your company name, a physical address for each hiring site, your Employer Identification Number, and contact information for a program administrator who will manage the account. Someone authorized to sign the memorandum of understanding with DHS on behalf of the company also has to sign off. The whole enrollment can be completed in a single session.⁴

What to Do When E-Verify Returns a Mismatch

Not every case comes back clean. When the system cannot immediately confirm eligibility, it returns a Tentative Nonconfirmation, also called a mismatch. A mismatch does not mean the employee is unauthorized. It means the Form I-9 data does not line up with federal records, which can happen for reasons as simple as a name change that was never updated with 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. The process involves giving the employee a Further Action Notice, reviewing it with them privately, and recording whether they intend to contest the result. The employee signs and dates the notice, keeps a copy, and the original goes with their Form I-9.⁵ If the employee’s English is limited, a translated version is required.

An employee who contests the mismatch has eight federal government working days after the case is referred to begin resolving it with SSA or DHS. For the entire period the case is open, you cannot fire, suspend, cut pay, delay training, or take any other adverse action against the employee because of the mismatch.⁶ This is the step employers most often get wrong. Pulling someone off the schedule “just in case” violates federal rules and invites a discrimination complaint.

If the employee does not contest, or if the mismatch cannot be resolved, 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.⁷

Records and the Annual Tax Return Certification

Florida requires employers to keep a copy of the documentation provided during verification, along with any official verification the system generates, for at least three years.¹ These records are your proof of compliance during an audit, so storing them where they can actually be pulled matters as much as keeping them at all.

On top of the retention requirement, every covered employer must 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.¹ You can submit it on paper using forms such as the RT-6 or through the state’s online filing system.⁸ Missing the annual certification is an easy oversight that flags your business for scrutiny.

Penalties for Failing to Comply

The Department of Commerce administers enforcement, and the structure gives employers a chance to fix problems before penalties escalate.

On a first finding, the Department notifies the employer in writing and gives 30 days to cure the noncompliance.¹

If the Department finds that an employer failed to use E-Verify three times within any 24-month period, it must impose a fine of $1,000 per day until the employer provides proof that the problem is resolved.¹

Ongoing noncompliance is also grounds for suspending all state-issued business licenses until the employer cures the violation.¹ At $1,000 a day, a few weeks past the third finding runs into tens of thousands of dollars, and a license suspension effectively halts operations until the problem is fixed.

Anti-Discrimination Limits You Still Have to Follow

Running E-Verify does not let employers treat workers differently based on appearance, accent, or national origin. Federal law under the Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits unfair immigration-related employment practices, including discrimination in hiring or firing based on national origin or citizenship status.⁹

In practice, you must 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 it for 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 must accept them, even if a different combination would be your preference.¹⁰ Demanding extra documents from certain employees is one of the most common violations and tends to surface during audits as a pattern.

Public Agency Contracts: Stricter Rules

If your business holds or bids on contracts with a Florida public agency, the obligations are tighter. Every public agency contract must require the contractor and any subcontractors to register with and use E-Verify, and no party can enter the contract unless all parties are enrolled.¹

Subcontractors must give the general contractor 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 a public agency has a good faith belief that a contractor knowingly hired unauthorized workers, the agency must terminate the contract. That termination is not treated as a breach, the terminated contractor is barred from receiving any public contract for at least one year, and the contractor is responsible for any additional costs the agency incurs because of the termination.¹

A contractor or subcontractor who believes the termination was unjustified can challenge it in circuit or county court, but the filing has to happen within 20 calendar days of the termination date. That window is narrow and unforgiving.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 448.095 – Employment Eligibility
2
E-Verify. E-Verify and Form I-9
3
E-Verify. Why Must an E-Verify Case Be Created Three Days After Hiring an Employee
4
E-Verify. The Enrollment Process
5
E-Verify. Notify Employee of Mismatch
6
E-Verify. Tentative Nonconfirmations (Mismatches)
7
E-Verify. Final Nonconfirmation
8
Florida Department of Revenue. New Employee Eligibility and E-Verify FAQs
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S. Code 1324b – Unfair Immigration-Related Employment Practices
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Types of Employment Discrimination Prohibited Under the INA