What is Fannie Mae's verbal verification of employment 10 business day requirement?

Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.1-04, dated 10/07/2026, requires a verbal verification of employment for each borrower using employment income, no more than 10 business days on or before the note date. If that verification cannot be obtained before loan delivery, the loan is ineligible for sale to Fannie Mae.

This is the mortgage SLA for a verifications manager at a mid-size background-check firm on TazWorks or AIO Data that already buys The Work Number, and for mortgage processors and closers who still have restaurants, trucking shops, and small LLCs in the leftover queue when the note date is ten business days out.

The clock is the note date, not clear-to-close

A verbal verification of employment is Fannie Mae’s last-look confirmation that each borrower using employment income, Schedule K-1 under 25 percent ownership, or self-employment income remains employed as disclosed on the loan application. B3-3.1-04, dated 10/07/2026, read 2026-10-13, writes that purpose in the overview: confirm as late in the process as possible. A change in employment status can change capacity to repay, so the lender has to identify, evaluate, and resolve it.

The 10-business-day figure is measured on or before the note date. It is not measured from clear-to-close, from the lock, or from the day the processor first thought about calling. Business days exclude weekends and federal holidays.

On r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer, processors still describe a call within 10 days of closing, and some shops overlay a 0-to-48-hour check the morning of signing. Overlay can be tighter than Fannie. It cannot be looser if the loan is going to Fannie Mae. In r/pillar7 in August 2025, a VVOE specialist put the conventional rule as still employed, no earlier than 10 days before closing, and said the guide does not require the check to be verbal specifically. Announcement SEL-2026-09, also 10/07/2026, later made that last point explicit.

If the employer confirms the borrower is currently on temporary leave, B3-3.1-04 says consider the borrower employed. Temporary-leave income sits in B3-3.3-09. This is a selling-guide rule, not a statute. Check the investor overlay and counsel.

How long each income type actually gets

The 10-business-day clock is the employment-income default. Self-employment, military LES, DU validation, and Freddie Mac are different rows. Treating them as the same clock is how a file gets delivered ineligible.

Situation	Clock	What a miss costs
Employment-related income, Fannie B3-3.1-04 (10/07/2026)	No more than 10 business days on or before the note date	Loan ineligible for sale if the verification is still open at delivery
Pay-period documents instead of a fresh contact	Up to 15 business days prior, if those documents are dated within 15 business days and show the most recent pay period	Same. A biweekly deposit older than 15 business days can still count when the asset documentation itself is inside 15 business days
Military Leave and Earnings Statement	LES dated within 120 days of the note date	Same
Self-employment, or K-1 at 25 percent ownership or more	No more than 120 calendar days on or before the note date; the file has to confirm the business still exists	Same
K-1 under 25 percent, applications dated on or after 12/02/2026	The employment-income 10-business-day clock	Same. SEL-2026-09 made this split. Rental income only on that K-1 needs no verbal VOE
Desktop Underwriter employment validation, B3-2-02 (10/07/2026)	Close-by date in the DU message, which may differ from the 10-business-day clock	Follow the DU message. Miss the close-by date and the B3-3.1-04 verbal VOE is back on
Freddie Mac 10-day PCV, Guide 5302.2	No earlier than 10 business days before the note date, and no later than the day before delivery	Freddie still names Form 90 or an equivalent written record, with an independently obtained employer number

The Work Number still wins the files it holds, in seconds. Equifax lists more than 5.06 million contributing employers and 839 million-plus employee records on theworknumber.com, read 2026-10-13. When Desktop Underwriter validates employment off a vendor report, B3-2-02 says compliance with that DU message satisfies the verbal VOE. Instant databases and DU validation are the rows they actually win. The leftover diner is not in those rows.

The method is no longer prescribed

SEL-2026-09, effective immediately on 10/07/2026, removed the specific methods lenders had to use. Timing did not move. B3-3.1-04 now says the verification may be obtained verbally, in writing, through an employment verification vendor, or by other means acceptable to the lender, provided it is reasonable, verifiable, and appropriate for the borrower’s employment or income type.

Older recaps still list a phone book, directory assistance, a documented conversation with names and titles, or a written VOE inside 10 business days, as if those steps were still mandatory. They were the old prescribed methods. They are not the current Fannie rule.

Independently sourced contact is still how leftover CRAs keep a roommate from answering as HR. Clarifacts flags applicant-supplied numbers as a set-up risk, read 2026-10-13. That is a screening-fraud practice, not the Fannie method list. Freddie Mac Guide 5302.2 still wants Form 90 or a similar written document, and still wants the third-party source used to obtain the employer’s phone number. If the loan is going to Freddie, that form wins.

A voicemail is not a verbal VOE. The file needs a documented conversation, a vendor report the lender will stand behind, pay-period documents inside the 15-business-day alternative, or a documented no. How should a background check company document an unable to verify employment verification?

Closing slips, and the after-closing window

If the note date moves, the 10-business-day window moves with it. Title issues, a delayed CD, or a lock extension that pushes signing out a week all restart the clock. There is no grace period in B3-3.1-04 for a verification that was good last Tuesday.

The same section lets the lender obtain the verbal VOE after closing, up to the time of loan delivery. That is how a shop that cannot reach HR on signing day still funds, then chases before it sells the loan. It is not extra time on the 10-business-day clock. If the required verification cannot be obtained before delivery, the loan is ineligible for sale to Fannie Mae.

Each borrower using qualifying employment income needs the check. A co-borrower whose income is not used to qualify is a different file. Employment offers and contracts in B3-3.3-03 still point back to B3-3.1-04 for the verbal VOE, unless the start date is on or after the note date and the lender confirms the offer terms directly with the employer.

Leftover employers still have to fit the same 10 days

The Work Number answers in seconds when it holds the record. Pay-as-you-go prices start at $73.45 for some reports, theworknumber.com/pricing, read 2026-10-13. Enterprise is unpublished. A miss is still a paid lookup. What to do when The Work Number has no record is that miss. How to verify employment for employers that are not in The Work Number is the chase.

Superunit’s State of Employment Verification 2026, from 200,000-plus verifications in its own leftover mix, says about 65 percent of files still needed calls, emails, or faxes. A completed leftover in that mix took a median of 5 touches, with 17 percent of completed files at 11 or more, on 79,045 completed verifications. Median time to complete was 15.5 hours. The slowest 10 percent took about 3.8 days. Restaurants and food service completed at 54 percent, transportation and logistics at 49 percent. Those figures are Superunit’s order mix, not Fannie Mae’s clock.

3.8 days still fits inside 10 business days if outreach starts on day one and phone, email, and fax run the same day. Sequential voicemail burns the window. Superunit’s mix puts email at about 52 percent of leftover outreach and phone at about 46 percent. Employers are not required to answer a private verifier. Experian Employer Services, dated October 3, 2023, read 2026-10-13, says a request from a mortgage lender is not one the law forces a private employer to return. A silent line is an attempt. It is not a verbal VOE.

Each leftover order still needs the applicant’s signed authorization and a permissible purpose before outreach starts. Business lines are the default. Recording and AI-voice rules vary. Can a background check company use an AI voice agent to call employers? Check counsel. This is not legal advice.

Pull this week’s VVOE queue from Encompass, TazWorks, or AIO Data and sort it by note date, not by lock or clear-to-close. If a file closed on a voicemail, a day-11 call, a DU close-by date that already passed, or a single applicant-supplied number with no other source on the log, recut those before the next note date.