Newly hired workers must complete Form I-9, which is also known as Employment Eligibility Verification. The form requires the newly hired employees to provide certain documents to establish their identity and that they are lawfully authorized to work in the United States. To counter the penetration of undocumented immigrants, organizations in the United States are only authorized to hire employees who can establish their identity and eligibility to work in the country. 

A Little History of A Little History

The Immigration Reform and Control Act was issued in 1986 to authorize approximately 2.7 million undocumented aliens while at the same time trying to prevent future undocumented immigration. The enactment of the form was to require newly hired employees to show eligibility to work in the United States. 

Earlier 29 forms were admissible to establish the identity and/or eligibility of an employee to work in the United States. But in 2020, there are 25 admissible documents for verifying identity and/or work eligibility. 

Sanctions on Organizations 

Organizations that fail to comply with Form I-9 completion and retention practices can be penalized severely. Intentionally employing and continuing to hire unauthorized employees can trigger penalties ranging from $573 to $20,130 per worker, depending on the type of violation. For instance, whether the violation is a first or subsequent offense, participating in document fraud, and failing to complete the form. Substantive violations, like failing to provide a form for inspection by the ICE(Immigration and Customs Enforcement) range from $230 to $2,292. 

In February 2015, a provisional staffing organization was hit with a penalty of $227,000 for wrongly claiming it had established work eligibility for 242 workers it hired. Despite employing Form I-9 under penalty of perjury that the data was correct, the organization had not viewed the original documents.

However, technical violations of Form I-9 requirements won’t be castigated immediately. The organizations will be informed of the violations and given ten business days to fix the errors. The technical violations incorporate:

• Failure to give the date that employment starts.
• Failure to date the organization section of the form within 3 business days of the date that work begins.
• Failure of the worker to date the form at the moment employment begins.
• Failure to show that a worker is under the age of 18.
• Failure to present the date of rehiring a worker in the section of the form used for rehiring.

Final Words

An organization that can show good faith compliance has a rebuttable resistance to any fine that the government strives to impose. Once the form is filled, it is up to the administration to show that the organization did not act in good faith.

To know more about the purpose of Form I-9, attend the Compliance Prime webinar.