Our Story

About ZipID

Every year, millions of employers are required by federal law to verify who their new hires actually are. Most don't do it right — not because they're careless, but because the tools they've been given were built to fill out forms, not verify people.

Janice Kephart has spent decades shaping the federal identity systems that determine how America answers the question: who are you? She believes the I-9 law places an unfair burden on employers — requiring identity determinations they were never equipped to make, then penalizing them when they get it wrong. ZipID is her answer.

Part public service, part practical tool.

Book a demo

Our Mission

To give every U.S. employer the tools to meet their federal identity verification obligation — accurately, efficiently, and with confidence — regardless of their size, industry, or I-9 expertise.

Our Vision

An America where identity verification in the hiring process is so seamless and trustworthy that employers can focus on what matters: building great teams. And where new hires know from day one that their identity was handled with care, precision, and respect.

ZipID at a Glance

What we do

Biometric Form I-9 and identity verification, with E-Verify integration.

How it works

Document capture, biometric face match, liveness detection, and fraud checks in one guided workflow.

Time to complete

Under eight minutes, with no I-9 expertise required.

Who we serve

U.S. employers of every size, plus PEOs, background screeners, and HR platforms.

Headquarters

Alexandria, Virginia.

Industry membership

Member of PBSA, the Professional Background Screening Association.

Meet Our Founder

Forged in Technical Policy.
Built for Practicality.

Janice Kephart has spent more than two decades at the intersection of national security law, identity policy, and biometric technology — not observing it, but shaping it. As counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she drafted the federal identity theft criminal statute. As border counsel to the 9/11 Commission, she helped expose the identity vulnerabilities that enabled the September 11 attacks, then spent the next decade helping fix them.

She is an author of the REAL ID Act and an architect of the U.S. biometric entry-exit mandate — two of the most consequential identity security programs in American history. Her "terrorist travel" research helped redefine border security protocols worldwide, and she has testified before Congress 19 times.

As Homeland Security Director at MorphoTrak, one of the largest biometric technology companies, she designed and deployed biometric workflows at enterprise scale for U.S. government clients. She also directed the Biometric Interagency Working Group.

ZipID is the distillation of that career into a single, accessible product — bringing the rigor of federal identity doctrine to the everyday hiring process.

Janice Kephart, founder and CEO of ZipID

Leadership

Lee Bowes

Lee Bowes

Partner

Lee spent ten years at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, finishing as a Senior Executive Service Deputy Associate Director for Immigration Records and Identity Services — the directorate responsible for biometric collection, background checks, identity management, records, E-Verify, and SAVE. He had direct oversight of Form I-9 and E-Verify.

At ZipID, he brings an insider's view of how the federal systems behind employment verification actually work.

LinkedIn

Karen Inman

Karen Inman

Chief Information Officer

Karen is a technology executive who bridges IT and the business. She spent nine years at Capital One, rising from Oracle database administrator to IT Director, then ran data center operations at Circuit City, leading a global team of roughly 250 consultants, and directed application support, test, and release management at Markel Corporation.

Since 2012 she has served as a fractional CIO and strategic IT consultant across insurance, healthcare, financial services, government, and education. She holds an MBA.

Why Trust ZipID?

Because the people who built it have spent careers inside the machinery of American identity security — and know exactly where it breaks down.

Employers are legally required to verify every new hire's identity and work authorization. But the tools available to do that have never matched the legal obligation — until now. ZipID brings document capture, biometric verification, liveness detection, and fraud intelligence into a single workflow that anyone can complete in under eight minutes.

There's something else worth knowing. Janice Kephart is the great-great-granddaughter of Horace Kephart — writer, explorer, and a driving force behind the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She's also a Grammy-nominated spoken word artist. The instinct to forge new paths, to find clarity in complexity, and to make something that lasts runs deep.

ZipID is the result: a platform where automation, accuracy, and human dignity come together. Built to protect employers, protect new hires, and bring trust to one of the most consequential moments in the employment relationship — the very first one.

See ZipID in Action

How It Works Pricing E-Verify State Map Book a demo
Testimonial

ZipID is Buzzing
with Great Customers 

I-9 compliance is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of HR. It has become a critical business imperative for risk mitigation.

ZipID is the first solution that not only streamlines electronic completion of this new-hire requirement, but also enables employers and HR teams to go further—confidently verifying identity and documents. This added layer of assurance delivers peace of mind in an area where accuracy and compliance are essential.

It's incredibly easy for employees to use, and it gives compliance visibility across locations and HR teams - becoming the new standard in identity authentication for employment.

Melanie Parrish

Melanie Parrish
Strategic People Solutions HR

This product saves us so much time and reduces so much confusion over what IDs can be used. It is super seamless with a great user interface. Love ZipID.

Edwin Velasquez, Head of Operations and Finance
JV Cleaning

Frequently Asked Questions

COMPLIANCE and LEGAL

Is ZipID ICE-compliant I-9 software?

ZipID is designed to satisfy all five federal electronic I-9 system requirements under 8 CFR § 274a.2 — including compliant audit trails, electronic signature protocols, and secure storage standards. It is specifically designed to meet the March 2026 ICE reclassification that elevated common errors to substantive violations.

What are the fines for I-9 violations in 2026?

As of January 2025, I-9 paperwork violations carry fines of $288 to $2,861 per form under 8 CFR § 274a.10(b)(2). Knowingly hiring unauthorized workers carries fines up to $28,619 per worker for repeat offenses. ICE audit rates in 2025 ran at least ten times higher than the prior year.

Is ZipID integrated with E-Verify?

ZipID is a certified E-Verify Web Services Provider. When the employer signs the I-9, ZipID automatically creates the E-Verify case from within the I-9 workflow and records the result in the "Additional Information" box in Section 2 of the I-9.

Still Got Questions on Your Mind ?
Ask a Question
TECHNOLOGY and ACCURACY

What is NIST and why does it matter for I-9 verification?

NIST — the National Institute of Standards and Technology — is the federal agency that sets accuracy benchmarks for biometric identity technologies. For I-9 compliance, NIST validation matters because it provides an independent government-verified measure of whether a facial recognition system is reliable enough to trust. ZipID uses NIST-tested algorithms rated at 99.998% accuracy.

What is ZipID's biometric accuracy for 1:1 selfie-to-ID matching?

ZipID's 1:1 facial recognition is rated at 99.998% accuracy using NIST-validated algorithms — fewer than 2 mismatches per 100,000 verifications. Liveness detection is built in to confirm the selfie is from a real, present person rather than a photo or deepfake.

What is OCR and how does ZipID use AI-powered OCR for I-9 verification?

OCR — Optical Character Recognition — reads and extracts text from government-issued IDs. ZipID uses AI-powered OCR to instantly capture a new hire's ID data and automatically populate the required Form I-9 fields, eliminating manual entry and typos. The new hire confirms the extracted data before it populates the form.

How does ZipID verify a new hire?

ZipID uses NIST-validated biometric facial recognition to match a live selfie to the photo on the new hire's government-issued ID. AI-powered OCR extracts and autofills document data. Liveness detection and synthetic image screening run on the selfie capture, confirming a real, present person rather than a photo, replay, or deepfake. E-Verify adds further checks, including Social Security number matching, photo matching for U.S. passports and other select documents, and driver's license data matching in participating states.

Do you recommend using face recognition?

Facial authentication is entirely the employer's choice. It confirms that the new hire is who they say they are and that the ID they present matches their live self — especially valuable for remote hires, high-security roles, or industries with elevated identity fraud risk.

USING ZipID

How long does it take to complete an I-9 with ZipID?

ZipID completes the entire Form I-9 process — including identity verification, document capture, and E-Verify automation within the ZipID workflow — in under 8 minutes, for both remote and in-person new hires.

What is ZipID?

ZipID is an I-9 compliance and identity verification platform that combines biometric facial recognition, liveness detection, OCR document capture, and E-Verify to verify new hire identities and complete Form I-9 in under 8 minutes, with an audit trail designed to meet federal electronic I-9 requirements. It is the only I-9 platform built by the person who helped write the federal identity doctrine behind the law.

ABOUT

Who built ZipID?

ZipID was founded by Janice Kephart, former counsel to the 9/11 Commission and a national security identity expert with 25 years of federal and private sector experience, including designing border biometric workflows at MorphoTrak, now Idemia. Kephart authored the federal identity doctrine and biometric entry-exit recommendations underlying today's I-9 compliance framework, and has testified before Congress 19 times.