Effective January 1, 2026, with enforcement beginning July 1, 2026, Arkansas requires its state entities to verify the work authorization of new hires through the federal E-Verify system. The requirement comes from the E-Verify Requirement Act, Act 948 of 2025, which adds a new subchapter to Title 21 of the Arkansas Code (Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-901 et seq.). By its terms, the Act applies to state employers, not private ones.
Who must comply with the E-Verify Requirement Act?
The Act applies to state employers. It defines “employer” as “a state government department, board, bureau, political subdivision, or agency licensed under statute or rule to operate in this state,” and defines “employee” as a person performing labor or services “for a state employer.” Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-902. That definition reaches only state entities, so a “covered employer” in this article is a state entity, not a private business. The Act’s title and its legislative findings point the same way: the stated purpose is to require “state entities” to use E-Verify and to ensure that “state government jobs” go to people authorized to work.
Although some sources reviewed have described the Act as requiring all Arkansas private employers to use E-Verify by July 1, 2026, the statutory text does not support that reading. The defined “employer” is limited to state entities (Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-902(2)), and nothing in the subchapter appears to extend the verification requirement to private employers. The July 1, 2026, date those sources cite is the date the Act’s enforcement mechanism begins, not a private-employer effective date. Whether any other Arkansas statute imposes E-Verify obligations on designated private employers is a separate question this Act does not answer.
What must a covered employer do?
A covered employer must register for and create an E-Verify employer account and then use E-Verify for each new hire. Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-903. After hiring, the employer must employ the worker provisionally until E-Verify confirms work authorization, submit the worker’s information for verification, and keep the verification record for the longer of the employment’s duration or three years. If E-Verify does not confirm authorization, the employer may not employ, continue to employ, or reemploy the worker.
One further detail: the Act itself sets no deadline for running a new hire through E-Verify. It requires provisional employment until verification and directs the employer to submit the worker’s information “even if the employee’s employment is terminated less than three (3) business days after becoming employed.” Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-903(a)(2)(B). That three-business-day clause is not a filing deadline; it closes a short-term-hire loophole, confirming that the duty to submit applies even to a hire who leaves within a few days. A three-business-day deadline does exist, but it belongs to the federal E-Verify program, not to this Act: an employer must create the E-Verify case no later than the third business day after the employee starts work for pay. The Act adopts that federal system by definition. Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-902(3).
The Act also preserves federal obligations. Nothing in it relieves the covered employer of the separate duty to complete and maintain federal employment-eligibility verification, the Form I-9. Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-904.
When does the Act take effect, and when does enforcement begin?
The Act took effect January 1, 2026, but its enforcement mechanism does not begin until July 1, 2026. The verification requirement does not reach employees hired before the January 1, 2026, effective date, and the covered employer need not reverify a current employee’s eligibility to work under federal law. Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-903(b).
On enforcement, the Department of Labor and Licensing may request, and the employer must provide, the documentation the employer relied on to verify a new hire’s eligibility. Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-906(a). The Act constrains the decision-maker: the requesting party must rely on the federal government to verify eligibility through E-Verify and “may not independently make a final determination” that a worker is an unauthorized alien. § 21-3-906(b). And the enforcement is graduated. Beginning July 1, 2026, if the Department determines that an employer failed to use E-Verify as required, it must notify the employer and provide thirty days to cure the noncompliance before any consequence attaches. § 21-3-906(c).
What happens if a covered employer does not comply?
The Act separately prohibits a covered employer from employing an unauthorized alien, and it provides that a failure to comply with the subchapter’s requirements “shall be presumed a violation” of that prohibition. Ark. Code Ann. § 21-3-905. The verification process and the prohibition are meant to work together: using E-Verify is both the compliance obligation and the employer’s protection against the presumption.
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