A Paperwork Nightmare, The Dreaded I-9 Audit

Okay, for all you HR pros out there reading this... this is not a news flash.  The I-9 has got to be THE one form that has more mistakes than any other regularly completed employment form, and as some large employers like Abercrombie & Fitch can attest to (now over one million dollars lighter in the pocket book)... it can come with a LOT of fines and penalties if not done correctly.  This is true EVEN IF you are hiring only legal authorized workers... the technical errors can have a big financial impact if you are on the wrong side of an audit.

So, what should you do about it? Make sure you are dotting your i's and crossing your t's (as the expression goes) before the immigration officers comes to check on it for you...  Do your own internal audit! 

If you've never done an internal I-9 audit before, let me offer a little tried and true wisdom for you.  One key bit of info to remember is the required time keeping guidelines.  An employer MUST RETAIN the I-9 for EITHER 3 years from the date of hire OR 1 year from the date of termination, whichever is LATER.  Why is this important to you in your audit?  It is important because if you have errors on an I-9 that you still have on file which should have already been destroyed, you can still be penalized for it!  So why keep that liability laying around? Shred it and discard it! 

Remember also that when you get a notice from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)  or DOL (Department of Labor), you have only THREE DAYS to comply.  If you are not keeping your I-9s separate from your employee folders, bring a tent to work and prepare to camp out if you get an audit notice!  You WILL be eating and sleeping there until you get every last I-9 pulled for the audit.  It's best to keep these separate, such as in a 3 ring binder in alphabetical order for all active employees which you would then move to an inactive employee folder upon termination. 

Of course, with the sensitive nature of I-9s and the information they contain, these binders need to be kept in a secured office not accessible to any unauthorized personnel.  If you are not already doing this... as a part of your internal audit project, I recommend pulling them now to avoid the future headache when your official audit comes knocking (just assume it will because frankly, the government is over budget and looking for revenue... I-9 errors can bring in a lot of dollars from fines.  Don't let your employer be one of those footing the government's bills from errors that you can prevent or correct.)  I find it helpful to keep an Excel spreadsheet with the formulas all built into my template which calculates the discard date for me.  Let me know if you need the formulas for this.

This is just the first in a series of blogs I'll be writing on this topic... if I included it all in this post, you would be up all night reading it (even if you started at 2am).  So... come back for more helpful I-9 tips very soon!