Small errors on the I-9 form can add up to big fines for employers at a time all levels of goverment are imposing stricter enforcement policies, according to HireRight, an Irvine employment screening specialist.

HireRight is offering a free report, “Effectively Managing I-9 Employment Eligibility in the Face of Changing Legislation,” on its Web site to help employers avoid some of the more obvious problems.

“The stakes are only growing higher as the goverment steps up its enforecment of immigration employment law with stiff penalties, steep fines and worksite enforement and raids,” according to the report, written by Darlene Baker (right), HireRight’s liaison with the Department of Homeland Security.

The fines can be $1,000 or more per incident and that’s nothing compared to workplace raids that at some companies have resulted in the arrest of hundreds of employees.

Baker recommends some “best practices” in handling I-9 forms, which are required for ever new hire:

1. Store I-9 forms separately from other personnel files. If federal auditors come calling, you want to give them only documents they request, and that’s easier if I-9s are segregated, she said.

2. Train every employee who fills out I-9 forms how to accurately fill out forms.

“There are a lot of innocent mistakes you can make that the government will fine you for,” Baker said. “Fines range from $500 to $1,000 per incident. If you make two mistakes on one form, that could be $2,000. The record fine for one I-9 form is $16,000.”

3. Know which documents are acceptable for work authorization in the United States. If a new hire is a U.S. citizen a passport or driver’s license with social security card are valid, Baker said. If the new hire is a noncitizen, an employment authorization document is required.

4. Keep track of expiration dates for foreign workers. Many employers forget to reauthorize the I-9 forms for these workers when their visas are renewed.

5. Delete or shred I-9 forms as soon as allowable. Employers must keep an I-9 for every current employee. They also must keep I-9 forms for former employees until three years after their start date or one year after termination, whichever is later.

“If you have not destroyed them, you must show them to auditors and you might be fined for errors on those I-9 forms,” Baker said.

6. If you find a mistake on an I-9 form in your file, cross it out, fill in the correct information and date it. “It’s not good business practice to ask the employee to fill out a new one,” Baker said. “It might be discrimination.”

Employers are being pulled in both directions on the I-9 issue, especially the use of E-Verify, the national database of people who can legally work in the United States, Baker said.

Some government entities - the City of Mission Viejo, for example - require companies to use E-Verify. But other entities forbid its use. The state of Illinois won’t allow E-Verify to be used until the database is proven to be 99% accurate.

The California legislature has one bill pending that would require the use of E-Verify and another bill that would ban it.

HireRight’s survey found that more than half of companies are using or considering E-Verify.

“It’s debatable what is an acceptable level of accuracy in a database with hundreds of millions of records,” Baker said. “E-Verify never immidiately says a person is unverified; nationally 6% of inquiries are listed as ‘tentative’ and the employee can contest that and has eight days to work it out with Social Security.”

HireRight’s clients get less than 4% of new hires rated “tentative,” and only about 1.5% eventually are rated “unverified,” she added.

Companies like HireRight handle the employment verification for clients. HireRight, for example, has an electronic I-9 form that won’t allow the employer to accept the wrong work authorization documents.

“A key benefit of electronic I-9 management solusions is that they are continuously updated as new state and federal regulations go into effect,” HireRight’s report states.

Click here to get a free copy of HireRight’s report.

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Posted in: Employees • Jobs • Reports • Top posts • HireRight • I-9 forms • immigrant workers |

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