E-Verify announced in June 2016 that it will start locking (deactivating) user IDs that have not been accessed for 270 days. The deactivation process begins on August 1, 2016 and is a retroactive look-back as of August 1st. This means that as of August 1, 2016, a user account that has not been accessed for the prior 270 days (going back to November 5, 2015), will be deactivated. This does not mean that the employer's E-Verify Account has been deactivated – merely that the user's access is deactivated.

The E-Verify Program has since made available a new self-service feature that enables users to unlock their own user IDs, in addition to contacting their program or corporate administrators or calling E-Verify at 800-741-5023.

Here is what we recommend:

• If you have not done so, log into E-Verify to set up your security question (an optional feature in E-Verify) – this helps with the self-unlock process down the road
• Mark your calendar to log into and access your E-Verify account at least every 180 days to avoid the lockout process altogether.

The E-Verify lockout process is not significant, but it is a nuisance for users who have not logged into their accounts within 270 days.