U.S. Government Shutdown: E-Verify Unavailable for Employers

As of October 1, 2025, the U.S. federal government has shut down. One of the affected services is E-Verify, which is now temporarily unavailable. Because Fountain’s I-9 product integrates with E-Verify, this may affect how you process new hires.

What this means for you:

• Form I-9s are still required. Employers must complete Form I-9s within three business days of a new hire’s start date. This requirement has not changed.
• E-Verify is offline. You will not be able to create new cases, update existing cases, or act on Tentative Nonconfirmations (TNCs) until the system is restored.
• If a case ends up late: When E-Verify comes back online, the system may ask you for a reason. Select “Other” and type “Federal Government Shutdown.” This will ensure the delay is properly documented for audit purposes.
• TNC deadlines are extended. If you had cases in TNC status before the shutdown, the deadlines to resolve them will be paused until E-Verify is available again.
• Other Fountain products are not impacted. Onboarding, Compliance, and background checks that do not depend on federal systems will continue to work normally.

We’ll keep monitoring updates from DHS and will notify you as soon as E-Verify is back online. For detailed step-by-step guidance, please visit our Help Center. Additional guidance is available here.

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About the Author

Chief Product Officer

Salim Jernite

Salim Jernite is Fountain’s Chief Product Officer, where he leads cross-functional teams across product, engineering, design, QA, GTM, and customer experience. Passionate about improving the employee experience, Salim is driving innovation in frontline workforce management through Agentic AI—pioneering tools that engage workers, accelerate hiring, and improve retention at scale.