The I-9 Audit: Lessons Learned in today’s webinar with ICE

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Our webinar with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), How to Prepare for the I-9 Audit, ended just minutes ago and covered a lot of ground. Hundreds of questions poured in during the webinar. It was evident that those who participated have a keen interest in protecting their business. This is the first in what will be a series of posts to outline the key lessons learned and to answer the many good questions that we didn’t have time to address during the webinar.

ICE is the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security. They have more than 20,000 employees working in 400 offices in the U.S. and around the world (source), and are responsible for enforcing the nation’s immigration and customs laws.

ICE audits U.S. employers to ensure employers are processing and retaining I-9s for  employees in a manner that is compliant with the law.  ICE has a vested interest in educating employers and helping them avoid I-9 fines and criminal sanctions. ICE wants employers to be fully compliant, and so do we. This was the purpose of our webinar.

I-9 audits & fines risingWe’ve seen the number of ICE I-9 investigations grow year over year. We’re now seeing fines that reach into the $ millions. And many of us have cringed as we’ve watched companies learn the hard way that a negative outcome from an ICE audit can bring unwanted publicity.

How likely is it that your organization will get investigated by ICE and have to face these consequences? This is a common question. We heard in the webinar that one thing that influences ICE to choose certain employers to investigate is leads they get from the public as well as from state and federal agencies. Since it is not possible to predict these leads, we recommend instead that you make sure your I-9s are compliant to begin with, before an investigation. This way you’ll sleep at night. A customer of ours who cleansed a large number of I-9s recently described the feeling of relief when he was done. He said, “I sleep well now. I no longer have to live with a ticking time bomb.”

We recommend a good place to start considering how to get your I-9 compliant is to calculate your potential liability if you don’t. The dollar figure can be surprising. The figure is high because the typical error rate is so high.

76% of paper I-9s have at least one fine-able error. This error rate is the aggregate result of the million plus paper I-9s that have been processed through our I-9 remediation product. It represents a typical paper I-9 error rate for high-volumI-9 error ratee hiring employers with many locations. Compliant I-9 processing is extremely challenging for these organizations. If your organization does a high volume of hiring, has multiple locations, and has paper I-9s, your error rate for those I-9s is likely about 76%.

To calculate your potential liability, multiply your number of paper I-9s by 76% to get the number that are likely in error. Now multiply this estimated number in error by the $935 penalty listed in ICE’s I-9 penalty matrix. This is the penalty for first offense substantive and uncorrected technical errors.

So now you’ve calculated your potential liability. What do you do about it?

Check back or sign up to be alerted as we cover these topics from the ICE webinar in future posts:

We will also address the questions asked during the webinar that were common across so many attendees.

Discover how Tracker’s auto-cleansing I-9 remediation solution can correct up to 74% of your paper I-9 records automatically, while you sleep.

Disclaimer: The content of this post does not constitute direct legal advice and is designed for informational purposes only.

The I-9 Audit: Come learn from a U.S. Immigration & Customs (ICE) Inspector

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Update March 12th, 2014: Our “ACE the ICE Audit” Webinar took place earlier today; read about the webinar at The I-9 Audit: Lessons Learned in today’s webinar with ICE

webinariconimageRecord numbers of employers are having their Form I-9s investigated by U.S. Immigrations & Customs Enforcement (ICE). We’ve met many HR and compliance officers who went into an ICE audit thinking their compliance with legacy I-9 records was high, only to have the investigation reveal otherwise.  With an average error rate of 76% on paper I-9s, it is no wonder.

Join our free webinar on March 12th, How to ACE the ICE Audit: Webinar Overview Page to hear about the audit process directly from ICE, and learn what you can do now to prepare.

Most of us have read about employers being served I-9 administrative fines that now reach into the millions of dollars. An organization with 25,000 paper I-9s carries a potential liability of over $13 million. In addition to large fines, an ICE investigation with poor outcomes can also bring unwanted publicity.

If you’re an HR executive, compliance officer, or responsible for recruiting and hiring, this webinar will help you prepare for a knock on the door from ICE. You will learn:

  • How to prepare in advance
  • What to do immediately when ICE knocks on the door
  • The steps in an ICE audit, what to expect in each step
  • Lessons learned from supporting real-world audits
  • Error types learned from analyzing over 1M records

E-Verify mandate proposed in New Jersey

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Bills were introduced this year in both the Senate and Assembly in New Jersey that would make it mandatory for all employers in the state to use E-Verify. E-Verify is a web-based service that employers use to confirm that new hires are authorized to work in the US. It is operated jointly by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration.

The New Jersey bills, NJ S354 and NJ A101, would require all New Jersey employers to use E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of new hires within 90 days of their hire date. It is important to note that the less stringent 90 day deadline stipulated in the proposed New Jersey legislation would not supersede USCIS rules that require the employer to start the E-Verify process no later than the third business day after the employee starts work for pay.

If this legislation passes, New Jersey would join Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah in requiring all or most employers to process new hires through E-Verify.

Many other states have laws mandating E-Verify use for specified employment situations. Bookmark this E-Verify Laws Map to keep up with the E-Verify laws and legislation proposed in each state.

Discover how Tracker’s electronic I-9 solution delivers complete compliance with just 15% of the effort. Feel free to contact us, we’d love to hear from you.

Half a Million Employers now using E-Verify

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everify-logoWe’ve just heard from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that as of the end of 2013, half a million employers are now using E-Verify, at 1.5 million worksites.

As you know, E-Verify is the USCIS web-based service that employers use to confirm their new hires are authorized to work in the US. Right now, except for federal contractors/subcontractors in certain situations, the US government does not mandate the use of E-Verify. Federal legislation has been proposed to change this, but as of today regulation of E-Verify is up to the states. It is up to each state government to decide how it wants to influence or regulate the use of E-Verify for employers in the state.

If you work for a large, multi-state employer, you probably know how difficult it can be to keep abreast of the current and proposed laws that might affect you in each state where you have offices. (This E-Verify Laws Map might be helpful to you).

About 30% of states mandate that some private employers use E-Verify, typically those working state contracts, or those with more than a certain number of employees. Only four states today require all employers to process new hires through E-Verify (Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina). Three others require all employers over a certain size to use E-Verify (those who employ above 10 in Georgia, 15 in Utah, and 25 in North Carolina). Given this, at least some of the 500,000 employers who use E-Verify are doing so voluntarily.

An increasing number of employers who use Tracker’s I-9 & E-Verify solution voluntarily E-Verify all new hires, even at stores/restaurants/offices located in states with no mandate. These customers are taking the sound position that it will pay to be ahead of the curve on compliance, especially since there seems to be a broad base of support for a nationwide E-Verify mandate. The Tracker customers who’ve had to go through audits with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were richly rewarded for their commitment to compliance when they passed the ICE inspection with ease.

Speaking of audits, we recently supported a customer through a state audit of their E-Verify records. While we’ve supported a good number of customers through ICE I-9 audits, this was the first time we’ve been involved in a state audit of E-Verify records. We will keep you posted if we start seeing a trend.

If your organization is not yet using E-Verify, you may find this paper helpful when you are ready to get started: How to Prepare Your Company to Use E-Verify.

Disclaimer: The content of this post does not constitute direct legal advice and is designed for informational purposes only. Information provided through this website should never replace the need for involving informed counsel on your employment and immigration issues.

Discover how Tracker’s electronic I-9 software service lets you produce flawless I-9s every time. Feel free to contact us we’d love to hear from you.

E-Verify Resumes Service: What Employers Need to Know

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E-Verify OpenToday US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) brought their E-Verify service back online and provided the instructions posted below for employers. The service was unavailable from October 1-16, 2013. If you hired employees during the 16 days E-Verify was offline, or if you had E-Verify cases in process, you will want to carefully follow these USCIS instructions.

If you submit E-Verify cases manually and hired employees during the offline period, you will need to log into the E-Verify website and manually key in the data required to submit a query for each person you hired during the offline period, being careful to follow the special instructions below from USCIS. If you use the Tracker electronic I-9 & E-Verify solution, your delayed new hire cases can all be submitted automatically in a single batch process which incorporates the USCIS special instructions. You won’t have to pull up the individual I-9’s. This will save you time, especially if you work for a high-volume hiring organization.

Below are the instructions posted by USCIS, which you can also read on the E-Verify website:

E-Verify has resumed operations following the federal government shutdown. All E-Verify features and services are now available. The following information addresses questions on how the federal government’s shutdown affected E-Verify and Form I-9.

Information For Employers

Form I-9

The Form I-9 requirements were not affected during the federal government shutdown. All employers must complete and retain a Form I-9 for every person hired to work for pay in the United States during the shutdown.

E-Verify

Employees who received a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC)

If an employee had a TNC referred between September 17, 2013 and September 30, 2013 and was not able to resolve the TNC due to the federal government shutdown, add 12 federal business days to the date printed on the ‘Referral Letter’ or ‘Referral Date Confirmation.’ Employees have until this new date to contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to resolve their cases. If you have an employee who decided to contest his or her TNC while E-Verify was unavailable, you should now initiate the referral process in E-Verify. Employers may not take any adverse action against an employee because of a TNC.

Employees who received a SSA Final Nonconfirmation (FNC) or DHS No Show result

If an employee received a Final Nonconfirmation (FNC) or No Show because of the federal government shutdown, please close the case and select “The employee continues to work for the employer after receiving a Final Nonconfirmation result,” or “The employee continues to work for the employer after receiving a No Show result.” The employer must then enter a new case in E-Verify for that employee. These steps are necessary to ensure the employee is afforded the opportunity to timely contest and resolve the Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) that led to the FNC result.

Creating Cases: Three-Day Rule

You must create an E-Verify case for each employee hired during or otherwise affected by the shutdown by November 5, 2013. If you are prompted to provide a reason why the case is late (i.e., does not conform to the three-day rule), select ‘Other’ from the drop-down list of reasons and enter ‘federal government shutdown’ in the field.

Federal Contractor Deadlines

During the federal government shutdown, federal contractors could not enroll or use E-Verify as required by the federal contractor rule. If your organization missed a deadline because E-Verify was unavailable or if it has an upcoming deadline for complying with the federal contractor rule, please follow the instructions above and notify your contracting officer of these instructions.

Information For Employees

If the federal government shutdown prevented you from contesting a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC), you will be allowed additional time to contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) or Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If your TNC was referred between September 17, 2013 and September 30, 2013, and you were not able to resolve the mismatch due to the federal government shutdown, you should:

  • Add 12 federal business days to the date printed on the ‘Referral Letter’ or ‘Referral Date Confirmation’ that your employer provided you after you contested the TNC. Federal business days are Monday through Friday and do not include federal holidays.
  • Contact SSA or DHS by the new date to resolve your TNC.

If you received a Final Non-Confirmation (FNC) because you could not contact DHS or SSA during the federal government shutdown, or because you could not contact DHS or SSA in the first ten days after the government reopened, please contact your employer and request that the employer re-enter your query. For more information about contesting your TNC or FNC, please refer to Employee section of the E-Verify website.

Customer Support

E-Verify Customer Support expects an increase in requests for assistance. Due to this increase, customers may experience longer than normal delays and response times. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience. For any questions or additional information about how the federal shutdown affects E-Verify, please email E-Verify@dhs.gov. For questions about Form I-9, please visit I-9 Central or email I-9Central@dhs.gov. Employers and employees may also contact E-Verify at 888-464-4218. Customer Support representatives are available Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm local time.