E-Verify requirements in Michigan: a budget condition on state department contracts, renewed year by year

As of October 2026, Michigan's E-Verify requirement is not in the Michigan Compiled Laws at all. It sits in the boilerplate of the state budget. The omnibus appropriations act for fiscal year 2025-26, 2025 PA 22, tells most state departments that they "shall require as a condition of each contract or subcontract" that the contractor or subcontractor agree to use E-Verify to verify that everyone it hires during the contract term is authorized to work in the United States. There is no Michigan E-Verify mandate for private employers that do not contract with the state.

Because it is budget language, the rule has to be re-enacted each year to continue, and its exact reach depends on which department you contract with. That is the angle this page takes.

What the budget section says

The section is nearly word for word the same in each department's article of 2025 PA 22:

1. The department "shall require as a condition of each contract or subcontract that the prequalified contractor or prequalified subcontractor agree to use the E-Verify system to verify that all persons hired during the contract term by the contractor or subcontractor are legally present and authorized to work in the United States."
2. The department "may verify this information directly or may require contractors and subcontractors to verify the information and submit a certification to the department," and must report to the Legislature by March 1 on the processes it has put in place.
3. E-Verify is defined as the internet-based system operated by DHS and USCIS in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

Which departments carry it

We did not find the section in the judiciary article of the same act. School aid and higher education are funded through separate appropriations acts that we did not review.

Reading the condition

"Each contract or subcontract"

There is no dollar threshold and no headcount threshold. As written, the condition attaches to each contract and subcontract of a covered department. The section also uses the phrase "prequalified contractor or prequalified subcontractor," a term most associated with transportation construction, where contractors prequalify to bid. How each department applies that phrase to ordinary services contracts is a question to put to the contracting office; in practice, expect the E-Verify clause in the department's contract template regardless.

"All persons hired during the contract term"

The verification duty is about new hires during the term, and it is not limited to people working on the state contract. That lines up with E-Verify's own rule that an enrolled hiring site must verify every new hire at that site. Existing employees are not re-verified; outside a federal contract with the FAR clause, E-Verify is for new hires only.

Verification and certification

A department can check directly or require a certification. Either way, keep your E-Verify company ID, the signed memorandum of understanding, and case records organized by hire date for the contract term, and collect the same from your subcontractors before they start.

Why the fiscal year matters

Michigan budget boilerplate is attached to a particular year's appropriations. 2025 PA 22 appropriated money "for the fiscal years ending September 30, 2025 and September 30, 2026." A contract signed during that year carries the clause as a contract term for its whole life, whatever later budgets say. For contracts signed after October 1, 2026, the condition applies only if the new budget repeats it. NCSL's tracker records Michigan adding this kind of condition for Human Services and Transportation contracts in a 2012 budget bill, and the 2025 act spread it across most departments, so it is a recurring feature of Michigan budgets rather than a one-off; but check the current act, not last year's.

A second Michigan-specific caveat: governors sometimes tell the Legislature, when signing a budget, that particular boilerplate sections are unenforceable. We did not review the signing statement for 2025 PA 22. If a department's contract template omits the E-Verify clause, that may be why.

Michigan employers with no state contract

For a private Michigan employer that does not contract with a state department, the state adds nothing to federal law on work authorization. The obligations are the federal ones:

• Form I-9 for every hire, with Section 2 completed within three business days of the first day of work.
• E-Verify if a federal contract requires it. A federal contract or subcontract with FAR 52.222-54 requires enrollment and verification regardless of state law, including when it reaches you as a flowdown in a subcontract.
• Consistent use if you enroll voluntarily. Michigan does not restrict voluntary E-Verify, but E-Verify's own rules do: every new hire at an enrolled site, never before an offer, and no adverse action while a mismatch is being resolved. See E-Verify tentative nonconfirmation.

Questions to ask the contracting department

1. Does your contract template include the E-Verify condition, and under which budget act?
2. Do you verify directly, or do you want a certification from us and from each subcontractor?
3. How do you read "prequalified contractor" for a services contract like this one?
4. If the contract is renewed or extended after October 1, which year's condition applies to the extension?

Staffing agencies and subcontractors

• An agency that supplies workers to a covered department, or to a contractor serving one, is a contractor or subcontractor and will be asked to agree to use E-Verify for everyone it hires during the term.
• The employer of record that completes Form I-9 creates the E-Verify case; see E-Verify for staffing agencies.
• Because the clause covers all hires during the term, an agency with one Michigan hiring site will in practice verify its private-client placements too. Some agencies enroll a separate hiring site for public work.

A worked example

This is an invented example. A Lansing IT staffing firm signs a two-year contract with a state department in January 2026 to supply contract developers. The department's template includes the E-Verify condition from the budget act, and the firm certifies at signing. It enrolls its Lansing hiring site and verifies every new hire for the rest of the term, including recruiters it hires for its own office. Its existing developers placed on the contract are not re-run. When the fiscal year rolls over in October 2026, nothing changes for this contract; the clause is already in it. Its next state contract, signed in 2027, will depend on the 2026-27 budget.

A Michigan checklist

• Contracting with a Michigan state department? Look for the E-Verify condition in the contract, and enroll before the term starts.
• Verify everyone hired during the term, at enrolled sites, after Form I-9 is complete; see I-9 timing in hiring and E-Verify enrollment steps.
• Collect subcontractor certifications and keep them with the contract file.
• For contracts signed after October 1, 2026, check the current budget act for the section.
• No state contract and no federal FAR clause: Form I-9 only; see the contractor onboarding checklist.
• Compare other states in E-Verify requirements by state.