• The I-9 employment eligibility verification process was instituted as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. All employees (citizens and non-citizens) hired after November 6, 1986 must complete the applicable sections of the I-9 form. The employer is responsible for ensuring that the I-9 process is followed. Even the company owner must have an I-9 on file if he was hired after the verification program began.
• Employers must retain completed I-9s for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later. These records must be handed over to federal immigration authorities upon request. Failure to do so could result in civil monetary penalties. Typically, federal authorities give a company three days to produce the I-9 forms. Employers can request an extension. Generally, it is best to have the documents stored in such a way to allow for fast retrieval. You may want to have separate files for I-9 forms instead of putting them in with employee files.
• If one entity acquires a business, the new owner can use all the I-9 records completed by the previous employer. But the new owner is responsible for those documents even if it did not oversee the completion and collection of those documents.
• The only expired document that you can accept for work verification is a valid United States Passport. You may also accept an expired document from List B to establish identity. As usual, the documents must appear genuine on their face.
• You may only accept original documents and not photocopies. You may not accept a laminated Social Security Card as evidence of employment eligibility.
• If you rehire someone, you do not need to complete a new I-9 if you rehire the person within three years of the date when the original I-9 was completed and the person is still eligible to work according to your records.
• According to current law, employers cannot specify which government approved documents they will accept from an employee to verify employment status.
• The refusal to hire an individual because of a future expiration date may also constitute illegal discrimination. If an employee indicates that he only has temporary work authorization, the company must re-verify his work status when the previous term expires. Companies should setup systems to track and notify them when workers need to be re-verified.
• The Social Security Administration (SSA) offers a free verification service that employers can use to check the viability of social security data provided by new employees. While the service is available to all employers and third-party submitters, it can only be used to verify current or former employees and only for wage reporting (Form W-2) purposes. Please note that the service helps identify incorrect Social Security data not detect identify theft. For more information on this service, please see section seven of this report.
• You only need to complete the I-9 form for people you have actually hired, not prospective employees. For purposes of the I-9 rules, a person is “hired” when he or she begins to work for you for wages or other compensation.
• Employers must examine the ID and work authorization document(s) and, if they reasonably appear on their face to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting them, you must accept them. To do otherwise could be an unfair immigration-related employment practice. If a document does not reasonably appear on its face to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting it, you must not accept it. You may contact your local ICE office for assistance. See the resource list at the end of this report.
• One of the easiest ways to shield your company from discrimination claims resulting from I-9 practices is to have standardized policies that apply to all employees. The general rule is if you treat everyone the same, it is very hard for anyone to prove discrimination.
• The I-9 Form is divided into three sections — (1) the part that employees must complete, (2) the part that the company must complete after examining the evidence that an employee is eligible to work in the United States and (3) the section that the company must complete upon updating or re-verifying the work status of an employee.
• Employers must complete Section 2 of an I-9 Form by examining evidence of identity and employment eligibility within three business days of the date employment begins. If employees are authorized to work but are unable to present the required documents within three business days, they must present a receipt for the application of the document(s) within three business days and the actual documents within ninety days.
• Even if a translator completes Section 1 of an I-9 Form for an employee, the employee must personally sign Section 1.
• Companies should consult legal counsel with expertise in immigration and workplace law to review their I-9 compliance and worker verification procedures and policies.
• All employees involved in administering the I-9 process should be trained on company policies and informed about the typical mistakes that have been made in the past.
• Social Security Numbers always have 3 digits then two digits followed by four digits. The first set of digits is called the Area Number, which represents the contact area provided on the form for the person requesting a number. Notice this may or may not be the place of residence of the individual. The group Number is always two digits ranging from 01 to 99. Thus, a number with 00 in the middle is never a real Social Security Number. The last four digits is the Serial Number, which ranges from 0001 to 9999.
• Keep in mind that although Social Security Numbers are issued in some order, there is no easy way to tell much about a person’s age, place of residence, etc. based on his/her number. The federal government provides a telephone help line for those struggling with some aspect of the I-9 process. This hotline can be reached at 800/357-2099 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday (Federal holidays excluded).
