E-Verify requirements in Minnesota: one certification on state service contracts over $50,000

As of October 2026, Minnesota has exactly one E-Verify requirement in statute, and it is narrow. Under Minn. Stat. 16C.075, a state contract for services valued over $50,000 must require the vendor and every subcontractor to certify that they have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, E-Verify for newly hired employees who will perform work for the State of Minnesota. There is no private-employer mandate, no statute requiring state agencies to verify their own hires, and no penalty written into the section itself.

If you hire in Minnesota and do not sell services to the state, Minnesota law adds nothing to the federal Form I-9 process. If you do, the certification is easy to sign and easy to sign incorrectly, which is what this page is about.

The statute in one table

Reading the certification carefully

"Contract for services" and the $50,000 line

Goods-only purchases are outside the section; services contracts are inside it once their value exceeds $50,000. If a contract starts below the line and is amended above it, treat the certification as due at that point and ask the contracting agency how it wants it documented.

"Implemented or are in the process of implementing"

This is softer language than most state statutes, which require an employer to be enrolled and participating. It allows a vendor that has started enrollment to certify. It does not allow a vendor that has done nothing to certify, and the operative date is the date services begin, not the date the contract is signed. A practical reading: start E-Verify enrollment as soon as you are awarded the contract, and have your company ID and signed memorandum of understanding before the first day of work. The enrollment steps are in E-Verify enrollment steps.

"Newly hired employees who will perform work on behalf of the state"

The statute only asks about new hires who will work on state business, which looks narrower than states such as Indiana or Nebraska that cover every new hire. In practice the difference shrinks. Under E-Verify's own rules, an employer that enrolls a hiring site must create a case for every new hire at that site; it cannot verify only the people it expects to staff on the state contract. A vendor that wants to limit E-Verify to state work has to do it by choosing which hiring sites to enroll, not by choosing which people to run.

Subcontractors

The certification runs to "the vendor and all subcontractors." The prime vendor is the one signing the state contract, so in practice it needs to collect a matching certification from each subcontractor before that subcontractor's people start, and keep it with the contract file. Expect the state to ask for those certifications if anything goes wrong.

What Minnesota does not require

• Private employers: no E-Verify mandate of any size.
• State agencies' own hiring: no statute. Governor Pawlenty's Executive Order 08-01, issued January 7, 2008, required E-Verify for newly hired executive-branch employees and added certification duties for state contractors over $50,000. Under Minn. Stat. 4.035, subd. 3, an executive order expires 90 days after the governor who issued it leaves office unless an earlier date applies, and Governor Dayton let it lapse in 2011. In 2012 he vetoed a bill that would have put state-employee E-Verify into statute.
• Local government contracts: 16C.075 sits in the state procurement chapter and refers to work on behalf of the State of Minnesota. We found no statewide statute requiring E-Verify on city, county or school district contracts.

The 2011 statute is in effect the contractor half of the old executive order, made permanent; the state-employee half was not carried forward.

Penalties and consequences

Section 16C.075 does not set a fine or a debarment period. A vendor that signs the certification without having started E-Verify has made a false certification in a state contract, and the consequences are whatever the contract itself provides, which typically includes termination for breach. We did not find a debarment rule specific to 16C.075, but a false certification is not something a vendor wants on file with the state that awards its future contracts. That exposure is the reason not to treat the form as boilerplate.

Separately, federal law always applies: knowingly employing an unauthorized worker and Form I-9 paperwork violations carry federal penalties regardless of state contracts. See I-9 penalties.

Staffing agencies supplying state contracts

A staffing or IT consulting firm that places workers on a Minnesota state services contract over $50,000 is either the vendor or a subcontractor, and either way it certifies. Points to settle before the first placement:

• Which hiring site hires these workers. If the agency's Minnesota branch enrolls, every new hire at that branch gets a case, including people placed with private clients.
• Who signs what. If the agency is a subcontractor to a prime vendor, the prime will usually ask for a written certification; keep a copy.
• Who runs the case. The employer of record that completes Form I-9 creates the E-Verify case. See E-Verify for staffing agencies.
• Licensing is a separate question. See staffing agency license requirements in Minnesota.

Questions to settle with the contracting agency

Because the statute is one sentence long, a lot is left to the solicitation and the agency's contract template. Before signing, it is worth getting written answers to a few questions:

1. How is the contract value measured? Total over the full term including renewal options, or the initial term only. The answer decides whether a $45,000 base contract with options is covered.
2. What proof does the agency want? Some agencies accept the signed certification alone; others may ask for the E-Verify company ID or the signature page of the memorandum of understanding.
3. When are subcontractor certifications due? At award, or before each subcontractor starts work, and whether the agency wants copies or only wants them kept on file.
4. Who at the agency handles questions if an employee receives a tentative nonconfirmation and cannot start on schedule. The no-adverse-action rule in E-Verify tentative nonconfirmation applies, and the project plan should allow for it.

A worked example

This is an invented example. A St. Paul software consultancy with 40 employees wins a $180,000 state contract to build a reporting tool, using one subcontracted designer's firm. It signs the 16C.075 certification at award, enrolls its single hiring site in E-Verify the same week, and from then on runs every new hire through it, including two developers hired for unrelated private clients, because the enrolled site must verify all new hires. It gets a signed certification from the design firm before the designer starts. Its existing employees who move onto the project are not re-verified: E-Verify is for new hires, and only federal contractors with the FAR clause may run existing employees.

A Minnesota checklist

• Is it a state contract for services worth more than $50,000? If not, 16C.075 does not apply.
• Start E-Verify enrollment before services begin; the certification speaks as of that date.
• Decide which hiring sites to enroll, knowing every new hire there will be verified.
• Collect subcontractor certifications before their people start.
• Keep completing Form I-9 for everyone; E-Verify runs off the I-9, never before it. See I-9 timing in hiring.
• For workers outside Minnesota, apply that state's law; see E-Verify requirements by state.