Common I-9 Blunders... and how to fix them

By Katie Loehrke


Beginning in 2009, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) greatly increased its focus on auditing and investigating employers. Over the past year, ICE has issued a record number of civil and criminal penalties against employers who violate immigration laws. Now may be a better time than ever to make sure I-9 practices are in check.

While the Form I-9 may seem like a simple document, HR professionals with responsibilities for these forms know that the process of completing, updating, and destroying them can easily go awry. Unfortunately, seemingly simple missteps with the Form I-9 could lead to claims of discrimination, compliance fines or both.

Below are some of the most common mistakes employers make in the completion, retention, and updating of the Form I-9.

Blunder: Failing to keep an I-9 for the required amount of time or failing to destroy a form in a timely manner.

The fix: Employers are required to have Forms I-9 on file for ALL current employees, but once employment ends, a former employee's form must be kept for one year after termination or three years after the employee's date of hire — whichever date is later .

Essentially, this means that:

* If an employee is employed for fewer than two years, the form must be kept for a total of three years (beginning on the employee's date of hire).

* If an employee is employed for two or more years, the form must be kept for an additional year after the employee is terminated.

If a form was destroyed too early (or lost), there is little employers can do if an individual is no longer employed. However, if the employee is still employed, the employer should ask the worker to fill out a new form using current dates. Affix a note indicating why the form was not filled out within three days of the employee starting work. While this is still a compliance error (failing to complete the form within three days of hire), it's not as serious an error as if the form were missing entirely.

If forms haven't been destroyed on the schedule described above, a thorough audit can determine which ones can be purged. Employers who hold on to I-9s for longer than required may be responsible for compliance errors on forms that could have been destroyed.Read more: http://www.workplacemagazine.com/ezinestory/HR/2011/March/03152011article4.htm