I-9 audits are coming
I-9 audits are coming. Early December, 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will be conducting I-9 audits of 1,000 employers. The I-9 audits are coming!! Are you ready?
Purpose of these audits is to ensure that employers are complying with employment eligibility laws. This decision follows the an audit of 652 employers in early 2009. The 652 employers were selected for inspection as a result of "leads and information obtained through other investigative means". The aggressive activity by ICE is reinforces by the fact that the 652 Notices of Inspection (NOI's) exceeded the total number of NOI's issued in fiscal year 2008.
The most recent announcement went to companies in targeted industries: manufacturing, construction, agriculture, hospitality, and food service. The companies were selected due to prior violations, such as incomplete I-9's and previous offenses.
Audits lead to:
- Penalties from $100 to $10,000 per individual.
Audit preparation:
- Respond to the Audit, do not ignore it.
- Initiate an internal review of your process for completing and filing the I-9
- Insure that you have an I-9 on file for every employee on your payroll, yes, even the Company President.
- Review all I-9's to ensure that each I-9 has been completed correctly, if not, you need to initial and date any corrections.
- Maintain all I-9's in a separate file.
Per law, the I-9 must be completed within 3 days of hiring an individual. If you follow these steps, you should have no problem passing an audit of your I-9 records.
Contact Pinnacle PEO Corp for more information on I-9 audits.
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