On November 14, 2008, the Department of Defense and General Services Administration issued a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require that most federal contractors and subcontractors doing business with the federal government use the E-Verify program to check the employment eligibility of all new hires and employees directly performing work under federal contracts, with some exemptions. On several occasions, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security decided to delay the implementation of this final rule.

The rule was set to go into effect on May 21, 2009. However, the rule has now been delayed again, until June 30, 2009. We will issue a further alert if there are further developments.