Avoid Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (EEV) mistakes by carefully following all of the applicable rules, regulations and laws. The Department of Homeland Security is cracking down on errors and mistakes in order to prevent fraud. No business wants to be visited by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials investigating violations of American law - so be prudent in faithfully following the procedures.

Imprisonment and/or Fines for Fraud

The United States requires employers to verify the eligibility of people to work in this country. This is a legal requirement during all economic times, good and bad. The form clearly warns businesses that penalties include imprisonment and/or fines for "false statements" or "falsified documents."

ICE will audit a company when it notices a pattern of errors and mistakes on its forms. Typos, misspellings and minor mistakes are considered "technical" or "procedural." Major mistakes with legal ramifications - like omitted signatures - are "substantive."

Who Must Fill Out this Form?

The EEV form states that it must "... be completed and signed by employee at the time employment begins." All new seasonal, temporary and permanent workers (not unpaid interns) must fill out this form and provide valid original identification documents. It doesn't matter how desperate a company is to fill a position, these American laws must be followed.

Most Common Mistakes

Many mistakes can occur while filling out the form. These are the most common mistakes in filling out the EEV form:

• Corrections not initialed and dated
• Failure to mark boxes for citizenship, residency or alien status
• First date of work not listed
• Incomplete information
• Information doesn't match
• Missing signatures
• Not verifying expiration date of documents
• Proper number and type of documents
• Wrong or missing dates

Three-Day Rule

Remember the "Three-Day Rule!" This is an important guide concerning how long a company has to complete the EEV form. Once you have offered the job to the applicant and s/he has accepted, then you must have the employee fill out Section 1 of this form to check citizenship and immigration status on the first day of paid work.

The employer must complete Section 2 no later than the third business day of paid work. This procedure must be followed even if the employee is hired for a very short amount of time. This is the essence of the "Three-Day Rule."

Section 1

Section 1 must be filled out by the employee on the first day of paid work. This includes name, address, birth date, social security number, status boxes and signature line for name and date.

Section 2

The employer must fill out Section 2 showing that the identification documents were physically reviewed and verified. This includes title, issuing authority and expiration date for the documents. The business owner must sign and date this section.

Section 3

Section 3 is entitled "Updating and Reverification" — this is for rehires. It includes areas for new name, rehire date and if grant of work authorization has expired. The employer must sign and date this section.

List of Acceptable Documents

The United States government requires original documents, not photocopies. These documents are used for establishing identity for work authorization. Employer must physically examine documentation.

Instructions

This EEV form is to "document that each new employee (both citizen and noncitizen) hired after November 6, 1986, is authorized to work in the United States." The form must be filled out "no later than the time of hire...." The time of hire is the first paid work day.

E-Verify for Faster Online Processing

E-Verify is a free, Internet-based confirmation system managed by the Department of Homeland Security, which requires use of a Social Security Number (SSN). All employees (including temps) receiving compensation, must be entered into this system.

This online system completes checks within minutes. It cannot be used to check expired employment authorization; it is only for new employees. It has photo matching to protect against falsified identification documents.

The "Self Check" option enables U.S. employees to obtain work authorization before beginning a new job. Employers cannot require employees to use the Self Check option.

This online system does not replace the I-9 EEV form. The EEV form must still be completed and stored in paper, electronic or microfilm/microfiche format.

E-Verify is mandated in a couple of states. Businesses can enroll at "www.USCIS.gov."

How Long Must I hold these Forms?

Employers must properly complete, maintain, track and update work information. The expiration date on identification documents should be closely monitored. While it is illegal to "refuse to hire an individual because the documents have a future expiration date," these documents must be updated when the expiration date arrives. It is wise to automate this process because tracking the expiration date for a large number of people can be time-consuming.

The EEV form must be held for a minimum of three years. Hire and termination dates should be recorded. A business might be audited by ICE, thus it is important that they follow proper document maintenance, handling and storage procedures.

Avoid Mistakes by Being Diligent

Remember the "Three-Day Rule" — All paid employees must fill out the I-9 EEV form and this form must be completed within three business days of the first paid day of work.

Consistency is very important to ICE, so if you establish a pattern, continue it on all your paperwork. Employers should visit the government website (http://www.uscis.gov) to see the latest requirements and download forms. Carefully read the forms from top to bottom to avoid costly mistakes.

Download our quick guide titled Avoid Five I-9 Mistakes, including

• Tips from four prominent immigration attorneys in the United States
• News releases issued by government agencies about relevant legal settlements
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Handbook for Employers

If your company is selected for an administrative inspection, you will probably receive the NOI (Notice of Inspection) through a personal visit by an ICE agent. The inspection will determine your company's compliance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 along with other immigration laws. At this point you will have three business days to gather and produce all documentation. You will be required to produce Form I-9s for your current employees and, in some cases, for former employees, as well. There is also supplemental documentation that may be requested. The key to successfully handling the inspection is preparation and organization.

When you first receive your NOI, begin by gathering all documentation. The agent will usually provide a list of what documentation ICE is requesting. Of course, it will list Form I-9, but it may also include a copy of your payroll, a list of current employees and business licenses. A Special Agent in Charge can also ask for Social Security no-match letters, lists of managers and copies of company compliance policies. If you feel you won't meet the deadline, you can request a delay. It might even be best to retain a document management service which is experienced in immigration law. A service can assess your compliance before the inspection and prevent issues from arising.

When all the documentation is gathered, a Forensic Auditor within ICE will inspect it. If problems are found, the auditor will determine to which category they belong. Technical and procedural violations are minor and an employer will be give 10 business days to correct them. Substantive violations are much more serious and there is not opportunity provided for correction. Substantive violations include missing document numbers and signatures. Substantive violations don't always have to stay that way, however. If the company or its representative can show that documents were, in fact, maintained, but, perhaps incorrectly, then the violation may be reduced to a technical violation.

Now, if you and your company have knowingly hired employees that are undocumented or with inadequate documentation, you will be sought out and fined. You may even face criminal prosecution. Immigration law is flaunted only at great peril.

On the other hand, companies should not suffer punishment when they make mistakes even after good faith efforts at compliance. Given the high bar set for compliance most companies would do well to contract with a compliance specialist such as I-9Compliance.com to assist them in managing documentation. I-9Compliance.com's secure web-based I9 system integrates with the federally mandated E-Verify system avoiding costly violations.

The E-Verify system used by the Department of Homeland Security to electronically verify employment eligibility for new employees. In the past, its use has been voluntary for federal employers; Arizona has now made it mandatory for all employers within the state. Additionally, an Executive Order now makes e-verify mandatory for all new federal employees, including federal contractors and their employees, although existing federal employees and federal contractors are not affected.

In a highly controversial piece of legislation, Arizona made it illegal for employers to “knowingly or intentionally employ unauthorized workers” by implementation of the Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA). Those employers who violate this new law may forfeit their business license or have it temporarily suspended, thereby making it impossible for them to conduct business within the state of Arizona.

When this legislation was enacted, several civil rights organizations as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit against Arizona in an attempt to forestall implementation of this legislation. Their argument was that federal law does not mandate e-verify, therefore a state does not have the right to do so; further, they argued, immigration law is under the jurisdiction of the federal government and should not be regulated by the individual states.

However, these arguments were unsuccessful and the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the District Court have ruled that Arizona has the right to enact immigration law within its own borders as long as they are not more lax than federal law.

Several other states have enacted mandatory e-verify legislation for all employers and many more have legislation pending. Other states utilize e-verify for state agencies or state agencies and contractors; many states are beginning to follow Arizona’s lead in aggressively pursuing businesses who employ workers who are not here legally. As a result of the ruling by the Supreme Court, more states are expected to enact legislation similar to that of Arizona.

There are currently five classes of states using the e-verify system:

• States that require e-verify for all employers.
• States that require e-verify for all state agencies and their contractors.
• States that require e-verify solely for state agencies.
• States that have legislation pending for e-verify.
• States that have no legislation and none pending for e-verify.

I-9compliance.com’s provides an electronic compliance solution to help you with your I-9 forms, keeping you ready to respond to any I-9 request by the government at a moment's notice. Visit I-9compliance.com and get started today.

Since 1986, all United States employers have been required to complete a Form I-9 when hiring an employee. This form serves to verify that the employee in question is lawfully permitted to be employed in the United States. While the latest version of the I-9 form is only one page long, it contains a minefield of areas of potential liability for employers that can have very real financial or even criminal consequences.

The I-9 process is deceptively simple. The potential employee fills out the first portion of the form, explaining how he or she is authorized to work in the U.S. The employer then reviews the documents provided by the employee to establish his or her eligibility to work (i.e. a U.S. passport, or an Employment Authorization Document issued to a foreign national) and then collects information from the documents and signs the form. However, the main reason that the I-9 form is so complicated is that the I-9 process puts the burden on employers to understand the complicated thicket of immigration laws and regulations governing when a foreign national can be employed in the U.S., and what documents are acceptable to demonstrate this.

Completed I-9 forms are not submitted directly to a government agency, but must instead be retained by the employer in their files. Therefore, the main enforcement tool the government uses to ensure that employers are hiring only people authorized to work are "I-9 audits" performed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In an I-9 audit, ICE can assess significant civil fines that run easily into the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, even for a small company. ICE may even threaten employers with criminal penalties in the case of particularly severe violations.

The regulations governing Form I-9 distinguish between two types of civil violations: "technical" violations and "substantive" violations. While "technical" violations can be corrected in I-9 audits according to the relevant regulations, ICE is much less inclined to forgive their "substantive" counterparts. Given the complexity of the I-9 regulations, however, potentially costly "substantive" violations can be difficult to avoid, even for the most conscientious employers.

Luckily, I-9compliance.com provides a free and easy method of helping you stay on top of your I-9 forms. Their electronic compliance solution will help you "audit" your I-9 forms before ICE does, keeping you ready to respond to any I-9 request by the government at a moment's notice. I-9compliance.com can help take away one of the major headaches of doing business in this era of increased immigration enforcement.

If you are a hiring manager at a corporation or the owner of a small or medium business you probably already know just how important it is to maintain compliance with Form I-9 requirements of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) department. The purpose of Form I-9 is to verify the employment eligibility of people seeking to work in the U.S. All businesses, regardless of their size are required to verify the identity and citizenship status of every employee seeking work. They are then required to fill out and maintain a Form I-9 for each employee in their payroll. Companies are not required to submit the filled out form to any government agency. Instead, they are supposed to maintain a filled out I-9 attesting to the eligibility of their employees to work in the U.S. The CIS can demand the documents at any time and failure to produce the documents can result in stiff penalties and even seizure of business assets.

As you probably know, just complying with these requirements is hard enough. Going forward though, things could become even harder because of all of the changes that are taking place at the state and federal level these days. The Department of Homeland Security for instance, last year revised its rules relating to I-9 compliance. The new rules require changes to documentation, record keeping and audit trails with regards to I-9 forms. Employers are now allowed to create and retain I-9 forms in electronic format, but there are confusing new requirements relating to the manner in which such electronic forms are to be created, stored, accessed and viewed. Adding to the complexity is the fact that companies need to maintain clear audit trails when converting existing paper based I-9 forms to electronic format.

If you are a HR or hiring manager with a government agency or a company that provides contract services for the government you may be also be subject to new E-Verify requirements. In many states, even private employers are now required to use the E-Verify system as part of the I-9 process. Just two weeks ago for instance, lawmakers in Georgia approved a bill that would require all employers, in the state, regardless of size to use the E-Verify system. The E-Verify system is an employment verification database that is maintained by the DHS. It allows employers to quickly verify the authenticity of Social Security Numbers of employees and to check their immigration status and their eligibility to work in the U.S. Many governments are mandated to use the E-Verify system these days.

The rapid-fire changes that are taking place in this space are being driven by growing calls for immigration reform. The changes are making it increasingly harder for companies to remain on top of I-9 requirements. However, failure to comply can mean serious consequences. Under the new rules, hiring an ineligible worker can attract fines of up to $5,500 per violation. Incomplete or improperly filled I-9 forms can result in fines of $1,100 while knowingly committing document fraud can mean fines of over $3,200 per document. The growing calls for immigration reform at both the state and federal levels are also leading to much greater scrutiny of I-9 compliance which means that companies are under much greater pressure to comply than they were before.