By Thomas J. Joy
Supervising Attorney - Business Unit
Employers need to be aware of and deal appropriately with two recent developments in Washington DC. First, the Obama administration in one day notified 652 employers that the government would be auditing their I-9 forms. In addition, the politicians, despite serious defects in the Social Security database, are proposing that all employees who are the subject of a Social Security No-Match letter be fired if they can not correct the issue. We wish to provide you with some preventive measures designed to help you avoid the serious consequences of these recent government actions.
Most important, retain experienced immigration legal counsel to do an informal audit of your company’s I-9 forms BEFORE the government knocks on your door. Many issues and errors can be spotted and remedied by this approach.
Big mistake to have your I-9’s signed on behalf of the company by employees that have not received proper training and do not have authorization. This will pretty much guarantee mistakes and is not a good practice.
Read and use the USCIS Handbook for Employers for I-9 compliance. This is one of the tools that we as attorneys use in advising our clients. We provide the link below.
Special attention needs to be focused on Sections 1 and 2 of the I-9 form. While Section 1 is filled out by your employee, the employer suffers the consequences (fines, etc.) if not done properly. Section 2 involves the documents that must be submitted by the employee and viewed by the employer regarding identification and employment authorization. It is best to make copies of documents recorded in Section 2. Practice shows that copies of these documents are the best way to prove that the I-9 Administrator actually reviewed them and that they meet the reasonable “good faith effort” standard. Discrimination issues arise if not done properly.
Separate I-9 forms from personnel files. Keep terminated employee I-9 forms in a separate binder for the required time and purge when the time has expired.
Develop a reminder system to update the I-9 if the employee has submitted temporary employment authorization.
By simply following these simple suggestions, the serious consequences of I-9 audits can be avoided.
