E-Verify requirements in New Jersey: no mandate yet, and three bills in committee

As of October 2026, New Jersey does not require employers to use E-Verify. No enacted statute covers private employers, public employers or state contractors, and New Jersey does not restrict employers that choose to use it. What New Jersey does have is a steady stream of E-Verify bills. Three were introduced in the 2026-2027 session and sit in the Labor committees of the Senate and Assembly: two that would require E-Verify of employers generally, and one aimed at certain contractors. None has had a committee vote.

Who is covered in New Jersey

The pending bills

Each is a carryover. New Jersey bills die at the end of each two-year session and must be reintroduced, and these proposals have been reintroduced repeatedly without reaching a floor vote. The Legislature's records showed no fiscal note certified for any of the three and no action after committee referral.

We did not rely on third-party summaries of the bills' penalty provisions, because some of those summaries carry compliance dates that have already passed, copied from older versions. If one of these bills moves, read the text as amended, not a tracker's summary.

What applies to New Jersey employers now

Form I-9

Every New Jersey employer completes Form I-9 for every new hire, with Section 2 finished within three business days of the first day of work. That is a federal obligation that applies whether or not the employer uses E-Verify; see I-9 timing in hiring.

Federal contracts

Under FAR 22.1803, clause 52.222-54 goes into federal contracts over $150,000 unless they are performed only outside the United States, last less than 120 days, or cover only commercially available off-the-shelf items. It flows down to subcontracts for services or construction over $3,500 with work in the United States. A covered contractor enrolls within 30 calendar days of award and verifies new hires company-wide and employees assigned to the contract. This is the most likely route by which a New Jersey construction or services firm is required to use E-Verify today, including on projects with federal money where the clause is flowed down.

The federal rules once you enroll

The E-Verify employer memorandum of understanding requires an enrolled employer to verify all new employees at the enrolled site, not selectively; to create each case within three business days after hire; never to create a case before a firm offer has been accepted and Form I-9 completed; never to use E-Verify to screen applicants; and not to take adverse action while a tentative nonconfirmation is contested. See E-Verify tentative nonconfirmation.

What a mandate would change for recruiters

The bills' texts may change before any vote, so treat this as what an all-employer mandate does in the states that already have one, not a prediction of New Jersey's final wording:

• Every new hire, every site. An all-employer mandate leaves no voluntary sites. Agencies with several branches would enroll each hiring site or run cases centrally.
• A short clock after hire. The federal MOU already sets three business days after hire, once the Form I-9 is complete, which turns late I-9s into late E-Verify cases.
• State enforcement. State penalties would sit on top of federal I-9 penalties; see I-9 penalties for the federal side.
• Tentative nonconfirmations at volume. High-volume hiring produces mismatches. The federal rule of no adverse action while a case is contested applies with or without a state law.

A contractor-only bill such as A191 would land differently: it would matter to firms on covered contracts and their labor suppliers, not to every New Jersey employer.

Records to keep now

New Jersey employers that use E-Verify voluntarily or under a federal clause should keep the signed MOU, the company ID, the list of enrolled hiring sites and the case results with each Form I-9. Federal retention for Form I-9 is the later of three years after hire or one year after employment ends; see I-9 retention rules.

Preparing for a New Jersey mandate without overcommitting

An employer that expects one of these bills to pass can prepare without enrolling early. Early voluntary enrollment has a cost: once a site is enrolled, every new hire there must be verified. Reasonable steps now:

• Make sure Form I-9 completion is on time and clean, since E-Verify runs off the I-9 data. An audit is a good starting point; see the I-9 audit checklist.
• Decide which sites you would enroll and who would hold E-Verify user accounts; see E-Verify enrollment steps.
• For public works contractors, watch A191 in particular, since a contractor-only requirement is narrower than an all-employer mandate and is the kind several other states already have.

Staffing agencies and recruiters in New Jersey

• No New Jersey placement triggers a state E-Verify duty today. An enrolled agency runs E-Verify as the employer of record that completes Form I-9; see E-Verify for staffing agencies.
• Many New Jersey agencies also place workers in Pennsylvania and New York. Pennsylvania requires E-Verify on public works projects over $25,000; see E-Verify requirements in Pennsylvania. New York has no mandate.
• Licensing is a separate question; see staffing agency license requirements in New Jersey.

A worked example

This is an invented example. A Newark staffing firm supplies laborers to two contractors in the same month. The first is renovating a private office building in Jersey City with no public money. The second is a subcontractor on a federally funded bridge project in Pennsylvania whose subcontract carries FAR 52.222-54 and which asks the firm to agree to it as a lower-tier subcontractor. For the Jersey City work, the firm owes Form I-9 and nothing more. For the Pennsylvania work, it is pulled into E-Verify twice over: by the federal clause flowed down to it, and by Pennsylvania's public works law if the project is a covered Pennsylvania public work. Once it enrolls its hiring site, every new hire at that site is verified, including the Jersey City laborers hired afterward.

A New Jersey checklist

1. No federal contract with FAR 52.222-54? E-Verify is optional; Form I-9 is not.
2. Read every subcontract for a flowed-down FAR 52.222-54.
3. If you enroll, verify all new hires at the site after an accepted offer and a completed I-9.
4. Track S3856, A4638 and A191 through the session.
5. For workers outside New Jersey, apply the rule of the state where they work; see E-Verify requirements by state.