E-Verify requirements in Delaware: no state mandate, and what a Delaware employer still has to verify

As of October 2026, Delaware has no E-Verify law. Nothing in the Delaware Code requires a private employer, a state agency, a school district or a contractor on a state project to enroll, and nothing restricts an employer that enrolls on its own. A Delaware employer meets its employment-eligibility obligations through federal Form I-9, and uses E-Verify only by choice or under a federal contract clause.

That is a narrower statement than it sounds. Delaware's labor market runs straight into Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, and one of those three has an E-Verify statute that Delaware contractors cross into regularly.

Where Delaware stands, employer by employer

What Delaware's procurement code does require instead

Delaware public works contracting is governed by subchapter IV of 29 Del. C. chapter 69. The most significant labor term there is the prevailing wage rule in § 6960, which applies to public works contracts above $500,000 for new construction, or above $45,000 for alteration, repair, renovation, rehabilitation, demolition or reconstruction. Contractors on those jobs deal with wage determinations and certified payroll, and the Delaware Department of Labor sets the prevailing rates. There is no parallel requirement to verify workers through E-Verify, and the chapter does not ask bidders to certify anything about their workers' immigration status.

For a Delaware construction recruiter, the compliance work on a state job is therefore about classification and pay, not E-Verify. The worker-eligibility piece is the same Form I-9 the contractor completes for every hire.

Next door: Pennsylvania's public works rule

Delaware contractors and trade staffing firms work in the Philadelphia suburbs and along the I-95 corridor every day, and that is where an E-Verify obligation can appear. Pennsylvania's Public Works Employment Verification Act requires every contractor and subcontractor on a publicly funded construction project whose total cost exceeds $25,000 to use E-Verify for each new employee hired during the contract, whether that person works on the site or not. A Wilmington electrical contractor that wins a Chester County school renovation is covered there even though nothing in Delaware law would cover it at home. The details, including certification and enforcement, are in E-Verify requirements in Pennsylvania.

The other neighbors do not add a state duty. Maryland has no E-Verify statute. New Jersey has none either, though bills to create one have been introduced; see New Jersey.

Federal contracts held in Delaware

The federal rule is the one most likely to bind a Delaware business that has no Pennsylvania work. Under FAR 22.1803, contracting officers insert FAR 52.222-54 in contracts above $150,000, unless the work is performed only abroad, lasts under 120 days, or is only for commercially available off-the-shelf items. The clause flows down to subcontracts for services or construction above $3,500 with work in the United States. Delaware examples include construction and maintenance at federal installations in the state and professional services subcontracts under federal agency awards.

A covered contractor enrolls within 30 calendar days of award. It then verifies all new hires across the company, and employees assigned to the contract, unless it qualifies for one of the narrower options the clause gives certain employers, such as state and local governments and institutions of higher education.

Form I-9 is the obligation that never goes away

With no state program, the Delaware compliance file is the I-9 file. The same mistakes show up in audits whether or not a state mandates E-Verify: Section 2 completed late, documents specified by the employer rather than chosen by the employee, expired work authorization never reverified, and forms purged too early. The list in common I-9 mistakes is a reasonable self-audit for a Delaware employer. An employer that adds E-Verify still needs every one of those things right, because the E-Verify case starts from the information on the completed form.

Remote hires and Delaware-registered companies

Delaware's corporate law brings it a large number of companies that are incorporated in the state but employ few people there. For E-Verify purposes, the state of incorporation does not decide anything. State E-Verify statutes generally attach to where the employee works, so a Delaware corporation with staff in Georgia, North Carolina or Arizona looks to those states' rules for those employees, and a Delaware corporation with staff only in Delaware has no state rule to follow at all.

The same logic applies in reverse to a remote worker who lives in Delaware and works for a company based elsewhere. If the work is performed from a home in Dover, Delaware has no E-Verify requirement to add, even when the employer is headquartered in a state that requires E-Verify of all employers. Whether the employer's home-state statute claims that worker depends on how that statute defines its reach, so read it rather than assuming either way. Remote hires also raise a practical I-9 question: who physically examines the documents. The employer remains liable for whoever it designates to do that.

What would signal a change

Most state E-Verify laws arrived in one of three ways: an all-employer bill, a condition added to public contracting, or an executive order covering state agencies and their vendors. In Delaware the second route is the one to watch, because chapter 69 is amended often and a bid condition is easy to add there. A Delaware contractor that bids on state work can keep track cheaply by reading the general conditions in each solicitation, where any new verification term would appear before it reached a statute summary. Until then, a bid form that asks about E-Verify is asking about a contract term, not about Delaware law.

Staffing agencies in Delaware

• A Delaware placement carries no state E-Verify requirement, whether the client is a private business, a state agency or a school district.
• A placement on a Pennsylvania public works project above $25,000 can, because Pennsylvania's act reaches every contractor and subcontractor on the project; read the Pennsylvania guide before supplying workers to one.
• A client's federal contract can flow the FAR clause down to the agency's staffing subcontract. The agency then enrolls and verifies under the federal MOU as the employer of record.
• Agency licensing is a separate question; see staffing agency license requirements in Delaware.

A worked example

This is an invented example. A Newark, Delaware staffing firm supplies laborers to two clients: a general contractor renovating a Delaware state office building under a $300,000 contract, and a site contractor on a $2 million township project in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. For the Delaware job, the firm completes Form I-9 for each worker and follows the § 6960 prevailing wage determination; there is no E-Verify requirement. For the Pennsylvania job, Pennsylvania's act applies, so the firm enrolls and verifies each new employee it hires while that contract runs, and completes the verification paperwork Pennsylvania requires. Because enrollment under the federal MOU covers its whole hiring site, it decides to register a separate hiring site for its Pennsylvania construction work.

A Delaware checklist

1. Delaware work only, no federal clause: complete Form I-9 correctly; E-Verify is optional.
2. Any Pennsylvania public works project above $25,000: apply Pennsylvania's E-Verify rule to that work.
3. Any federal prime or subcontract: look for FAR 52.222-54 and enroll within 30 days if it is there.
4. If you enroll voluntarily, verify every new hire at the enrolled site and never before an accepted offer.
5. Compare other states in E-Verify requirements by state.