Form I-9 Audit – Is it on Your Resolution List?

As the first quarter of 2012 kicks off, this is a time for many companies to look back at 2011 to celebrate success, access opportunities, set goals and make plans for the next fiscal year.  Opportunities may include new markets, new products, increases in advertising or research, reorganization and budgeting. For some employees it will be business as usual while others will take an active role in moving the business forward.

It is reasonable to assume most companies make decisions about the future by first looking to the past. Time is spent reviewing reports, looking at sales history, identifying trends and making plans to improve.   Audits are performed to check compliance with government regulations.  Industry standards are scrutinized and procedures are fine tuned to ensure goals are met.  The past will help pave the path to the future for many organizations.

At this time of reflection and planning many businesses are assessing their hiring practices.  History shows us the last 3 years were years of change for government enforcement of employment eligibility verification requirements.  Since 2009, employers large and small have been targeted for document investigations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and most are found to be out of compliance with the requirements of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.

Form I-9 Violations are Costly

Non-compliance with Form I-9 requirements cost employers on average $900 per employee.  Many companies have paid fines well over $100,000! In addition to civil money penalties assessed by the government, the companies audited spent hundreds of man-hours, paid huge legal fees and suffered the public relations nightmare of being the target of an immigration investigation.

What is very important for employers to know about this government enforcement strategy is ICE is performing document inspections – not work site raids. During the ICE investigation each one of your employee’s Forms I-9 will be scrutinized and ANY ERROR, no matter how seemingly insignificant, will be penalized with a fine.  Most of the companies audited and fined last year did not knowingly employ illegal workers; they had simply made mistakes while completing the Form I-9. Their fines were simply for I-9 errors!

Even more infuriating is that most of the I-9 mistakes made could have been avoided with proper training and attention to detail.  I-9 rules allow you to repair many mistakes prior to a government inspection but you must be cautious about making the corrections within the rules.

Form I-9 Compliance Action Steps

As you make plans for 2012 it is prudent to put I-9 compliance toward the top of the list.  Schedule an independent I-9 audit, get professional training from a qualified Form I-9 expert, carefully make corrections before your business is audited by ICE, and develop an I-9 compliance plan as a measure of your company’s good faith attempt to comply with the requirements of employment eligibility verification and the Form I-9.

If you have questions about an independent Form I-9 audit, contact I-9 Okay today…before its too late.

Is the IMAGE Program Right for Your Business?

It may be time to take another look at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) IMAGE program.  IMAGE stands for “ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employer”.  IMAGE was created in 2006 as an initiative designed to encourage employer compliance and strengthen hiring practices in order to curtail the employment of unauthorized workers.

Based on its original design, IMAGE was heavily slanted in favor of the government and gave little to no incentive for employers to join the program.  The original program required an employer to submit to an ICE I-9 audit and be subject to the same penalty structure as non-IMAGE employers.  As of January 2011 only 115 of the over 10 million employers in the U.S. had joined the IMAGE program.

Recognizing the existing IMAGE program to be a dismal failure, the government revamped the program in 2011 and began an educational campaign to give employers information about the new and improved, kinder, gentler IMAGE program.

To be IMAGE eligible an employer is required to:

• Enroll in the E-Verify program;
• Establish a written employment eligibility verification policy that includes internal Form I-9 audits at least once per year; and
• Submit to an inspection of their Forms I-9.

ICE agrees to:

• Waive potential fines if substantive violations are discovered on fewer than 1/2 of the employers I-9s;
• Where more than 50% of the Forms I-9 contain substantive violations, ICE will mitigate fines or issue the minimum fine of $110 per violation;
• Not conduct another Form I-9 inspection of the company for 2 years; and
• Provide information and training after the inspection.

So, should you consider the IMAGE program for your business?  Opening your doors to the government can be a scary prospect and it is certainly not a decision to be taken lightly.   It is a good idea though to follow the government’s advice even if you choose not to participate in the IMAGE program.

Having a written company compliance plan is smart business and may very well help establish that your company takes Form I-9 compliance and employment eligibility verification seriously.  Conducting an internal audit will help you establish your current level of compliance, correct some mistakes, and establish a training program to move forward with stronger procedures.  These are all best practices to protect your business and mitigate the risk penalties during an ICE investigation.

Whether or not you decide to join in a partnership with the Federal government it is absolutely appropriate for you to heed their advice when it comes to addressing your Form I-9 policies and procedures.

Notices of Inspection Served by the Feds

ICE served another round of inspections notices on November 4th. According to a statement released by the ICE department of public affairs:

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to various employers on Friday, Nov. 4. These inspections are designed to determine whether or not the businesses are violating U.S. employment laws by hiring unauthorized workers. The names and locations of the businesses will not be released at this time due to the ongoing nature of the inspections.”

This type of action by ICE has become a last quarter tradition.  It seems every year as the leaves fall off the trees and people begin thinking of turkey and cranberry sauce, ICE crashes the party by issuing inspection notices to hundreds of employers.  These Notices of Inspection are demands for I-9 document records and give an employer a measly 3 days to collect and turn-over all of their current employees’ records as well as all of the employees who have been terminated within the last 3 years.

Once ICE receives the Form I-9 records from the employer, the entire audit process can take a year or more to complete and culminate in a Notice of Intent to Fine which outlines every error and omission discovered by ICE during the review of the documents.  Each error that cannot be corrected by the employer will be assigned a fine amount.  Fines often total tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes employers pay in the millions!

This is a cautionary tale.  If your business did not receive a Notice of Inspection this month, count yourself lucky…but it is no time to relax!

If history is any indicator, ICE will be back in the spring, issuing more notices and your business may very well be on their list.  Taking a proactive approach to managing your I-9 compliance includes conducting a comprehensive audit.  An experienced independent auditor can help you identify areas of non-compliance and assist you in developing a plan to repair the costly mistakes that are inevitable in most organizations.  Statistically, when ICE investigates, they find errors on over 50% of the I-9s they audit and each one of those errors costs you money.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you are immune from a worksite  inspection because you are not hiring undocumented workers.  Remember, ICE will inspect your I-9 process to be sure you are complying with the rules and regulations when you complete the I-9 form for each new hire.  The inspection focuses on Form I-9 compliance, not on looking for illegal workers.

You can help protect your business from the huge fines associated with an I-9 inspection by conducting an internal audit of your own I99 records BEFORE you are visited by government agents.  Put this on your “To-Do List” and move it to the top.  Spring will be here before you know it and the next round of Notices of Inspection will be issued.  Will you be prepared or will you be sorry?

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Audit

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) visits your business and audits your compliance with the requirements of the Form I-9, will they think you acted in good faith to fulfill your responsibility to only hire workers who are eligible to work in the U.S.?

You’re probably thinking “Yes – of course we have acted in good faith to only hire legal workers”.  But will the government think so?  Probably not!   You may feel you are taking all of the steps required to be sure you are verifying the work eligibility of the people you hire, however, during an ICE investigation most employers discover their efforts are not sufficient.

The Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification is only one piece of the compliance puzzle.  And as I have discussed many times previously, the I-9 is a mine field of problems.  Simple errors, omissions, and mistakes cost employer tens of thousands of dollars in civil penalties for what ICE considers “technical/procedural violations”.

Yet time and time again, HR managers refuse to address these issues.  They ignore the importance of an independent Form I-9 audit to correct problems before an ICE audit.  Perhaps they feel an internal audit is part of their job…therefore ordering an independent 3rd party audit reflects poorly on their job performance.  The reality is, an independent and objective set of eyes often find errors and omissions that are easily overlooked.

An independent audit is a great first step in addressing I-9 compliance but it is only ONE step.  When the government asks the following questions, how will you answer?

• Do you only allow personnel with formal I-9 training to complete the form?
• Can you provide your written Company Compliance Plan?
• Can we see your Employment Eligibility Verification Policy?
• How do you avoid discriminatory hiring practices?
• How do you handle:
  1.  SS No Match Letters?
  2.  E-Verify?
  3.  SSNVS?

If you do not have the answers to these questions, it is likely the government will not think you have acted in good faith to fulfill your responsibility to hire only eligible workers.  It is time to take I-9 compliance seriously and get your compliance plan in place before ICE visits.  Visit www.I-9okay.com and download our FREE  Report with 10 Tips for Employer Compliance.  Get started today. Learn how to achieve good faith compliance in your business.

E-Verify – Coming to a State Near You

Thus far in 2011, seven more States have jumped on the E-Verify bandwagon, bringing the number of states requiring employers to use the government database to 17.  Many cities and local municipalities are requiring E-Verify.  There are several bills pending, including one at the Federal level, that would require the use of E-Verify by almost every U.S. employer.

This is a list of the 17 States currently requiring E-Verify.  The information was provided by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

As part of your employment eligibility verification compliance plan, you should have a mechanism in place to monitor your state’s E-Verify requirements so you ensure you remain fully compliant.  At the Federal level, employers found guilty of violation may, depending upon the number of offenses committed within a 3 year period, lose their business licenses.  Each individual state requiring E-Verify will have their own penalties in place for employers who fail to comply with mandatory E-Verify rules.  It often includes fines and debarment from bidding on or receiving State issued contracts.

E-Verify is not a substitute for the Form I-9.  The employer and employee must complete the Form I-9 within 3 business days of the first day of work for pay.  The employer then enters information from the I-9 form into E-Verify.  E-Verify compares the information provided against 455 million records in the Social Security Administration (SSA) database and 80 million records in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) immigration databases. Results are usually returned within a few seconds.

If a query cannot be confirmed instantly by DHS, the employer may receive a tentative non-confirmation (TNC) and will be required to verify the information provided is accurate and give the employee the opportunity to correct any bad data. In order to resolve a TNC, the employee will be directed to visit a SSA office or call a toll-free number to speak to a Department of Homeland Security representative.

For employers who do not have resources to add one more “job” to the on-boarding process, the Department of Homeland Security allows an employer to utilize a Designated Employer Agent.  An Employer Agent is usually a private consultant who is an E-Verify specialist.  The employer contracts with the independent Designated Employer Agent who utilizes the E-Verify system on the employer’s behalf.  This is an excellent solution for employers who are hiring only a few new employees each year or who are working on Federal or State contracts and need E-Verify for that purpose.

Although E-Verify may seem overwhelming, it is here to stay.  There are options for employers to implement it into their organizations.  Contact I-9 Okay, LLC if you have questions concerning E-Verify or need an E-Verify Designated Employer Agent.