There’s no question about it—trying to maintain I-9 compliance and staying up-to-date on new rules and regulations can seem pretty overwhelming. Even the most seasoned staffing professionals will tell you that avoiding I-9 violations requires meticulous management of your hiring and record-keeping processes. So what are the most common I-9 mistakes?

We surveyed a group of prominent attorneys who serve in the fields of immigration and employment and asked that very question. In this post and in our next few blog posts, we’re going to take a look at the 5 most common I-9 mistakes made by employers and provide tips about how to avoid those mistakes. It should make for some interesting and informative reading, so be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already done so.

Tip #1: Follow the three-day rule.

Once you’ve hired an applicant, the Form I-9 must be completed within a specific timeframe. Try to remember the three-day rule when thinking about the I-9 process:

• Once an applicant has been offered a position, make sure that Section 1 of the I-9 form has been completed by the first day of work.
• Section 2 of the form must be completed no later than 3 business days after the employee begins working.

And take note: if you’re hiring an employee for a period of fewer than three days, both sections must be completed by the employee’s first day of paid work.

If you don’t want to wait for our next blog entries to read more tips to avoid common I-9 mistakes, check out our free guide—it includes all five potentially costly errors.

And let us know: What kind of system do you have in place to make sure that the Form I-9 is completed on time?

Recently the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee debated H.R. 2164, a bill proposed by Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith which would mandate that all employers use the federal government's electronic E-Verify employee verification tool. H.R. 2164 would also increase penalties for knowingly hiring unauthorized foreign nationals. According to some observers, Smith's bill would have more impact on U.S. employers and their hiring practices than any bill since 1986's Immigration Reform and Control Act, which created the I-9 process.

During the subcommittee hearing, members of Congress and witnesses called before the subcommittee expressed a variety of perspectives on the bill. Rep. Smith, a longtime proponent of stricter immigration policy, noted that in some ways it can be easier to work illegally in the U.S. than to get medical care or do business with a bank, and that polling shows that Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of correcting this sort of fundamental absurdity in the U.S. immigration system. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Elton Gallegly argued that despite its added penalties, Rep. Smith's bill actually makes the employment verification process more fair for employers. This is because under H.R. 2164, employers would be permitted to make offers of employment contingent on clearance by E-Verify. Under current law, E-Verify can only be run after an employer is formally hired, leading to a number of complicated procedural and legal problems for employers when E-Verify cannot confirm that new employees are authorized to work.

Opponents of Smith's bill also spoke at the subcommittee hearing. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the leading Democrat on the subcommittee, noted that mandating E-Verify does not address the fundamental reasons that employers hire unauthorized workers in the first place. Smith's bill, therefore, will serve no purpose other than to unnecessarily grow the government if it is not combined with measures designed to legalize the population of undocumented workers who can be exploited for "under the table" employment. Tyler Moran, the policy director at the National Immigration Law Center, agreed with Rep. Lofgren, stating that Smith's bill by itself would only serve to damage the U.S. economy by pushing illegal workers further underground.

With even prominent figures who generally oppose immigration to the U.S. split on H.R. 2164 due to issues they see with the bill's limitation of state and local authority over immigration, the future of this bill is unclear. However, all employers would do well to pay close attention to any changes proposed in the U.S. employment verification system in the coming months.

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.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement department has issued a new rule, amending regulations pertaining to electronic I-9 forms. This rule was published in the Federal Register on July 22, 2010, and takes effect on August 23, 2010.

Maintaining compliance with I-9 rules and regulations is not just good business sense—it’s the law. There are severe legal repercussions for employers who do not maintain compliance, including costly fines and possible criminal prosecution, depending upon the infraction. For example:

• Hiring an unauthorized worker can result in fines up to $5,500.
• Improperly filed I-9 forms that are missing information can lead to fines up to $1,100 (even if the employee in question is legally authorized to work in the United States).
• Knowingly committing or participating in document fraud can lead to fines up to $3,200 per document for the first offense and up to $6,500 per document for subsequent offenses.

It is obviously a wise choice to pay meticulous attention to any new rules put forth by the DHS. Noncompliance can clearly result in a heavy financial burden—and no employer wants to face possible criminal prosecution. It is always in an employer’s best interest to diligently follow the DHS rules for I-9 compliance and to be fully informed about new updates and amendments to existing regulations.

We want to make sure that you are fully informed about these changes so that you can maintain consistent I-9 compliance, and to avoid the legal repercussions of noncompliance. For more information about the new DHS regulations for electronic I-9 forms, just click the link below.

http://www.i-9compliance.com/DHS