E-Verify requirements in West Virginia: no general mandate, a state verification law, and the Capitol Complex rule

As of October 2026, West Virginia does not require private employers in general to use E-Verify. What it does have is easy to miss: a state law, W. Va. Code Chapter 21, Article 1B, that requires every employer to verify a new hire's work authorization before employing them and to keep proof on site, with misdemeanor penalties; and one narrow E-Verify mandate for service providers' new employees working on the State Capitol Complex in Charleston. The 2026 Legislature passed an all-employer E-Verify bill through both chambers and still let it die on the last day of the session.

What applies in West Virginia

Article 21-1B: verification without E-Verify

The duty

Section 21-1B-3 makes it unlawful for any employer to knowingly employ, hire, recruit or refer an unauthorized worker for private or public employment in West Virginia, and says employers "shall be required to verify a prospective employee's legal status or authorization to work prior to employing the individual." "Employer" covers businesses of every size and also state agencies and political subdivisions. "Knowingly" is defined to include failing to request or review documentation of legal status or work authorization, so not asking is itself treated as knowing.

The document list

The statute lists acceptable proof as including, but not limited to, a valid Social Security card, a valid visa with photo identification, a valid birth certificate, a valid passport, a valid government photo identification card, a valid work permit, a valid Department of Justice permit, or another valid document showing legal residence or authorization to work. That list is not the federal Form I-9 list, and an employer must not use it to demand particular documents for the I-9: under federal law the employee chooses which acceptable I-9 documents to present. The practical approach is to treat a properly completed Form I-9 as the state verification, retain copies where your I-9 policy allows, and not add state-specific document demands. See I-9 List A, B and C documents.

Records

Section 21-1B-4 requires every employer to keep records of proof of legal status or work authorization for all employees, preserve them under the retention rule for wage-and-hour records in W. Va. Code 21-5C-5, keep them at the place of employment, and make them available to the Commissioner of Labor. Keeping I-9s centrally or electronically is common; for West Virginia worksites, make sure the records can be produced at the site on request. For federal retention periods, see I-9 retention rules.

Penalties under Article 21-1B

After a third-offense conviction, or a conviction for false records or asset disposal, the Commissioner may suspend or revoke the employer's business licenses under 21-1B-7. Section 21-1B-6 also bars an employer convicted under the article from deducting, for state income tax purposes, wages of $600 or more a year paid to the unauthorized worker involved.

One caution: federal law, 8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)(2), preempts state civil and criminal sanctions on employers of unauthorized workers other than through licensing and similar laws. The license sanctions in 21-1B-7 fit the licensing exception the U.S. Supreme Court upheld for Arizona in 2011; the stand-alone criminal fines are more exposed to a preemption challenge. Do not plan around that, but know it if you are ever charged.

The Capitol Complex E-Verify rule

Since a 2012 amendment, W. Va. Code 15-2D-3 has directed the Director of the Division of Protective Services to require any service provider whose employees are regularly employed on the grounds or in the buildings of the Capitol Complex, or who have access to sensitive or critical information, to put those employees through a fingerprint-based state and federal background check, and to require each new employee hired to provide services on the Capitol Complex grounds or buildings to submit to an employment eligibility check through E-Verify. Janitorial, food service, security, maintenance and IT contractors working in Charleston's state government buildings are the obvious examples. Expect the requirement to appear in the contract and in the building access process.

Public employers and state contractors

Article 21-1B's definition of employer expressly includes state departments, agencies, boards, commissions, public authorities and political subdivisions, so the verify-before-employing and records rules apply to West Virginia public employers exactly as they do to private ones. We found no West Virginia statute requiring state agencies, counties or cities to use E-Verify for their own hires, and none requiring it of state contractors generally, outside the Capitol Complex rule. A particular agency's solicitation can still add verification terms, so read the contract. The pattern resembles Louisiana's, where a general verification law sits alongside narrower contract rules; see E-Verify requirements in Louisiana for how that state handles the same question with an explicit E-Verify safe harbor.

HB 4198: the 2026 "E-Verify Safe Harbor Act"

As passed by the House, HB 4198 would have rewritten Article 21-1B to require every employer to register and create an E-Verify account, employ new hires provisionally until verified, keep verification records for the length of employment or three years, whichever is longer, and give employers that verified through E-Verify an affirmative defense. For knowing employment of unauthorized workers it would have replaced the criminal fine schedule with a ladder for willful violations: a formal warning, then public posting, a bar of at least two years on state and local contracts and maximum fines, then permanent license revocation. It passed the House and then the Senate with amendments. On March 14, 2026, the session's final day, the Senate asked the House to concur, and the bill went no further. Article 21-1B remains as described above.

Staffing agencies and multi-state employers

• An agency placing workers in West Virginia is an employer under 21-1B for its own employees and is expressly covered for recruiting and referring, so the verify-before-employing rule applies to it.
• Placements on the Capitol Complex trigger the E-Verify requirement for new employees sent there.
• Workers placed across the line in other states follow those states' rules; see E-Verify requirements by state.

A worked example

This is an invented example. A Charleston cleaning company with 20 employees has private office clients and wins a contract to clean two state buildings on the Capitol Complex. For its private work, West Virginia requires it to check work authorization before each hire and keep proof on site, which it does through Form I-9. For the four new cleaners it hires for the Capitol Complex contract, it must also run E-Verify and the required background checks. If it enrolls its single hiring site, E-Verify's rules mean every later new hire at that site is verified too.

A West Virginia checklist

• Complete Form I-9 for every hire before or on the first day; that is your 21-1B verification.
• Keep proof of work authorization for all employees, producible at the worksite.
• Capitol Complex work: E-Verify for new employees assigned there, plus fingerprint checks.
• Run E-Verify only after Form I-9 is complete; see I-9 timing in hiring.
• Watch the 2027 session for a revived HB 4198.