Businesses should protect themselves by Assuring they are in I-9 compliance:

Employers are required by law to check the identity and work authorization status of all employees of the business. The way the government monitors this compliance is through the I-9 Employment Verification Form that each employee must complete on the day of hire or earlier. Costly fines, loss of access to government contracts and bad publicity for a company are all consequences that can result from non-compliance with I-9 procedures.

An employer needs to plan and carefully consider how to best design and implement a procedure to conduct I-9 employment eligibility verification as required by law. That procedure must meet the standards established by law both to determine employment eligibility and to ensure that the employer does not participate in unfair immigration-related employment practices. The employer should follow several ground rules in establishing its employment verification system. There are a number of pitfalls which an employer can avoid if the employer carefully thinks about how to best design and carry out an effective employment verification system.

Our lawyers can assist your company by establishing a system (proper completion of the I-9 forms, correct verification of employees’ work authorization, and establishing a sound record keeping system) which will maximize compliance and thereby help to protect your company from considerably fines and other negative consequences of non-compliance.