Federal I-9 audits and penalties are steadily rising, and noncompliance can lead to significant fines and business disruptions. With ERC’s I-9 Review service, we’ll take a close look at your existing I-9 forms to catch any errors, omissions, or inconsistencies that could put your organization at risk.
Our team stays up to date on the latest regulations so you don’t have to. We’ll give you a clear, actionable plan to correct any issues and stay compliant moving forward.
What an I-9 Review Covers
We work through your forms individually. Every section, every supplement, every retention question.
Employee name and date of birth, a single citizenship or status attestation, the identifying numbers required for the status claimed, and the employee’s signature and date.
Whether acceptable documents were examined and recorded within three business days of hire, whether document title, issuing authority, number, and expiration are captured correctly, and whether the employer certification is printed, signed, and dated.
Where a preparer or translator assisted, whether their name, address, signature, and date are complete.
Reverification and rehire entries, whether continued work authorization was verified on time, and whether replacement documents were handled within the allowed window.
Whether the alternative procedure box is marked when the alternative procedure was used, and whether your organization was eligible to use it at the time.
If you complete or store I-9s electronically, whether the system meets federal standards for completion, retention, security, reproduction, and electronic signature.
Whether each form used the edition current at the time it was completed, which is a frequent finding for organizations with long-tenured staff.
Whether you’re holding forms for the required period, whether you’re holding forms you should have purged, and whether I-9s are stored separately from personnel files.
How It Works
ERC’s I-9 compliance review service offers a thorough review of your current employees’ I-9 forms, checking to make sure they meet all legal requirements and the latest regulations.
Our review identifies any errors or inconsistencies, and we provide the necessary guidance to correct them. Here’s what to expect:
- Scoping. We establish how many forms exist, how far back your retention obligation runs, whether the records are paper, electronic, or both, and whether you participate in E-Verify.
- Selection and notice. We agree on a neutral scope, all forms or a defensible sample, and prepare the written notice to employees explaining the review.
- Form-by-form review. Each form checked against every item in the table above, with findings logged as we go.
- Findings and correction plan. You receive the log, the severity sort, and the sequenced plan, then we walk through it together.
- Correction support. Where you want it, we help execute the corrections and stand up a process that keeps the next set of forms clean.
With ERC, you can feel confident that your I-9 forms are fully compliant, minimizing your risk of fines or penalties.
Contact Us for More Information
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Comparing I-9 Review Options
There are a number of other ways to review your I-9 forms for compliance, but each has potential drawbacks you should consider.
I-9 Software
Electronic systems can make new forms cleaner and flag reverification dates. But older forms often live outside what software can check.
Software itself usually raises compliance questions too, since it has to meet federal standards for retention, security, and signature.
Reviewing I-9 Forms Yourself
There are two potential drawbacks here.
The person reviewing the forms is usually the person who completed them, which makes consistent errors hard to see, and the correction rules carry discrimination exposure.
Immigration Counsel
This could be the right call for an active enforcement matter or a genuine authorization question.
For working through several hundred forms and building a correction plan, it’s an expensive way to buy careful attention to detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
The phrase covers two different events. An internal or self-audit is a voluntary review an employer runs on its own Forms I-9 to find and correct errors. A government audit begins when ICE serves a Notice of Inspection and requires you to produce your forms for federal review. ERC’s I-9 Review is the first kind, done so the second kind goes better.
No regulation requires one. Federal guidance encourages employers to review their own forms, and good faith is one of the five statutory factors that can adjust a penalty calculation. A documented internal review is one of the clearer ways to demonstrate it.
Most are correctable. The method matters: line through the incorrect entry, add the correct information, then initial and date the change with the current date. Section 1 belongs to the employee, so the employee makes those corrections. Section 2 and Supplement B are yours. If a form is missing entirely, complete a new one dated the day you complete it, and resist any urge to make it look older than it is.
It can, if the selection or the follow-up is handled poorly. Reviewing employees selectively by citizenship status or national origin, demanding specific documents during correction, or acting against an employee on the basis of a paperwork error each carry their own exposure. The safeguards are a neutral scope, written notice to employees, and a correction process that leaves document choice with the employee.
Three years from the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever date is later. Forms held past that point are still subject to inspection, so purging on schedule is part of good practice. We flag which of your forms are past retention as part of the review.
Keep them separate. When an inspection comes, you produce the I-9s alone, and separate storage means an inspector sees the forms without the rest of an employee’s file. It also keeps the retention clock manageable, since I-9s and personnel records follow different schedules.
Reviewing all of them is the cleanest answer and often the most practical for organizations under a few hundred employees. Above that, a sample works if the selection method is neutral and documented. We help you decide during scoping, and the error rate in an initial sample usually tells you whether to widen the scope.
No. ERC provides HR compliance consulting. We review forms, identify errors, and build correction plans. When a matter needs legal counsel, including any active enforcement action, we say so and work alongside your attorney.
Yes. Form I-9 requirements are federal, so they’re identical everywhere, and reviews can be done remotely. We work with employers across the country.
Avoid Expensive I-9 Penalties: How to Get Compliant by Year-End
Form I-9 has been a cornerstone of the hiring process in the U.S., but March 2026 updates have made compliance more challenging. These changes mean businesses must adapt to avoid costly penalties. This article addresses practical approaches to ensure your company stays compliant, minimize risks, and adopt the latest I-9 procedures without disruption.
