E-Verify for NEMT companies: which states and contracts require it, and how it fits with Form I-9

Form I-9 is required everywhere, E-Verify is not

Every employer in the United States completes Form I-9 for each person hired to work for pay. The driver fills in Section 1 no later than the first day of work. You inspect the documents and sign Section 2 no more than three business days after that first paid day, so a driver who starts on a Monday must be finished by Thursday. Retain each completed form until the later of two dates: three years from the hire date, or one year after the driver leaves. The current edition is dated 01/20/25, printed at the bottom of each page.

E-Verify is a separate online step. It compares the information on a completed Form I-9 with Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records, and it is free. It never replaces the I-9: you finish the form first and build the E-Verify case from it.

For most private employers E-Verify is voluntary. It becomes mandatory for a NEMT company in three situations:

1. Your state’s law covers employers of your size.
2. A federal contract you hold, or work under as a subcontractor, includes the E-Verify clause.
3. A broker, health plan, or public customer writes it into your agreement.

The rest of the new hire paperwork is in hiring your first employee. What happens when immigration officials ask to see your forms is in the I-9 audit guide.

States that make private employers use it

These nine states require private employers to use E-Verify. Four reach every employer and five draw a line by headcount. Each statute counts and penalizes differently, and legislatures revisit these laws, so confirm your own state’s current rule with its labor department.

Some details matter for a growing fleet:

• Georgia. The headcount is taken on January 1 of the year you file the affidavit. As enacted in 2011, the law counts only employees who work at least 35 hours a week. The affidavit goes to the county or city that issues your business license or occupation tax certificate.
• Florida. When the Department of Commerce finds an employer skipped E-Verify, it gives 30 days to cure. Three failures in 24 months bring a fine of $1,000 a day until fixed and can suspend state-issued licenses. Keep the verification documents for at least three years. Independent contractors are not counted as employees.
• Tennessee. Penalties start at $500 for a first violation, rise to $1,000 and then $2,500, and add the same amount again for each worker not verified. A first violation that was not knowing becomes a warning if you fix it within 45 days.
• South Carolina. Every private employer holds an “employment license” by law. A first E-Verify violation means a year of probation with quarterly compliance reports. A repeat suspends your licenses for 10 to 30 days.

As an example, a Jacksonville operator with 30 W-2 drivers, dispatchers, and office staff falls under Florida’s rule. The same company with 20 employees does not, unless it signs a contract with a Florida public agency. Under Florida’s public contracting section, every contractor and subcontractor on such a contract must register with and use E-Verify for new employees, and each subcontractor gives the contractor an affidavit that it employs no unauthorized workers. Check the public contracting rules in your own state before you bid on county or school work.

Federal contracts, including VA rides

The FAR E-Verify clause, 52.222-54, goes into federal solicitations and contracts worth more than $150,000. Contracts for work performed only outside the United States, contracts running less than 120 days, and contracts for commercially available off-the-shelf items are left out. Government contracting officials, not E-Verify, decide whether a contract qualifies, and a covered contract includes the clause. For a NEMT company, the likeliest example is a VA medical center contract for wheelchair or stretcher van service; the VA contracts guide explains how those are bought.

Once you hold a contract with the clause, the clock starts:

1. Enroll within 30 calendar days of award, as a federal contractor. A company already using E-Verify updates its company profile instead of re-enrolling.
2. Within 90 calendar days of enrolling, start verifying every new hire, company-wide, not only the people on the contract, within three business days of each hire.
3. Verify existing employees assigned to the contract within 90 days of enrolling or 30 days of their assignment, whichever is later. You may choose to verify your entire workforce instead, within 180 days.

The clause flows down. If you work as a subcontractor under a prime contract that carries it, your subcontract for services worth more than $3,500 with work in the United States must carry it too. Medicaid trips are a different matter. They come through state agencies, health plans, and brokers rather than federal agencies, so the FAR clause does not reach them. For other public work, see government NEMT contracts.

Brokers that require it anyway

A broker can require E-Verify in a state with no mandate. Three current examples:

• WellTrans (Indiana). Policy PR014, effective April 8, 2025, requires every contracted provider and subcontractor to enroll in and use E-Verify for each employee who works on WellTrans trips, citing Indiana Code 22-5-1.7-11. You sign an attestation for each employee and keep the name, hire date, E-Verify confirmation number, and signed attestation on file. WellTrans may audit at random, wants records within five business days, and can suspend the contract or withhold payment for noncompliance. The WellTrans guide covers the rest of its credentialing.
• LCP Transportation (Indiana). Its new vendor credentialing checklist, updated July 2026, asks for an E-Verify case report for every driver and employee. The LCP Transportation guide lists the rest of the checklist.
• Paratransit Services (Washington). Its driver requirements ask for proof of citizenship or approval to work in the form of E-Verify, alongside a valid Washington license. The Paratransit Services guide lists the other driver rules.

Read your own agreements and credentialing checklists for the same language. A broker requirement binds you even where state law is silent.

California’s limits and Illinois’s repeal

California restricts how E-Verify is used, and Illinois has dropped its E-Verify rules but kept a notice rule for document mismatches.

California. Labor Code 2812 bars the state and local governments from requiring private employers to use E-Verify, including as a condition of a government contract or a business license, unless federal law or federal funding requires it. Labor Code 2814 makes it unlawful to run E-Verify on a current employee, or on an applicant who has not been offered the job, outside what federal law requires. When a mismatch comes back, you must follow the E-Verify notice steps and hand the employee any agency notice about their case. Each unlawful use can cost up to $10,000. Labor Code 1019.1 adds a separate penalty of up to $10,000 for asking for more or different documents than Form I-9 requires.

Illinois. The state repealed the E-Verify sections of its Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, Sections 12 and 13, effective December 12, 2025 (Public Act 104-455). What remains, Section 14, covers written discrepancy notices from agencies and vendors that do not enforce immigration law, such as the Social Security Administration, the IRS, or an insurer. You may not take adverse action based solely on such a notice, and you must notify the employee within five business days, in person if possible.

Running a case by the rules

E-Verify watches account activity for misuse, and its rules apply to every case. In order:

1. Enroll and sign the terms. Only people hired on or after your agreement took effect get cases, unless you are a federal contractor with the clause.
2. Display the posters. Show the Notice of E-Verify Participation and the Right to Work poster in English and Spanish, including to remote hires, online or on paper.
3. Complete Form I-9 after the offer is accepted. E-Verify employers must collect the driver’s Social Security number in Section 1, which is optional for other employers, and any List B identity document must carry a photo. Apart from the photo rule, you may not tell the driver which documents to bring.
4. Create the case by the third business day after the driver starts work for pay. If you miss it, create the case as soon as you notice and choose the reason for the delay.
5. Handle a mismatch fairly. Notify the driver, give them the Further Action Notice, and do not suspend, delay training, cut pay, or take any other action against them while the case is open.
6. Close every case and keep the records your state requires: three years in Florida, the length of employment plus one year in North Carolina, and three years after hire or one year after leaving in Tennessee.

E-Verify employers in good standing can also examine Form I-9 documents by live video instead of in person, which helps when you hire a dispatcher who lives elsewhere. The remote dispatcher guide walks through it.

Keeping hired drivers road-ready in HealthRide

Once a driver is hired, the dates that decide whether they can take a trip keep moving: the license, the CPR card, and training certificates. HealthRide tracks each driver credential and its expiration date, reminds you ahead of each one, and warns you when you try to assign a trip to a driver whose credential has expired. See fleet and credentials for how it works.