Federal Immigration Laws make it mandatory for employers to verify the employment eligibility of all employees hired after November 6, 1986. This requirement is fulfilled through the completion and storage of an I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form. Completed I-9 forms must be maintained by the employer for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. An individual may not begin employment unless the I-9 form is completed. Failure to comply with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 will subject employers to civil or criminal penalties, including fines.
On October 30, 2004, the President signed H.R. 4306. As a result, the I-9 form can now be paperless with eI9Verify.
Employer Responsibilities
- Complete, sign, and date an accurate I-9 for each covered employee
- Examine work eligibility documents submitted by the employee
- Store all completed I-9s for the required time period
- Re-verify work eligibility documents and update I-9s based on document expiration dates
- Produce I-9s for government audits and inspections
The eI9Verify service helps employers maintain compliance with immigration regulations and eliminate paper. The complete service includes:
- Accurately generate I-9s online with electronic signatures
- Verify employees with the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration
- Collect and review I-9s electronically to detect errors
- Image new or existing I-9s and work eligibility documents to a central repository
- Electronically store completed I-9s to eliminate paper I-9 storage
- Match I-9s with payroll data to ensure compliance
- Online application to search, view, and print stored I-9s
- Notifiation of I-9 reverifications
- Monthly compliance reports posted online for authorized administrators
- Documentation and assistance for government audits and inspections
- Toll-free assistance to answer questions and resolve problems
Major Service Components
The following is an overview of the major components of the eI9Verify service: Generation, Lookup, Imaging, Notification, and Reports. During the implementation process, the employer combines service components to tailor eI9Verify to meet their individual needs.
Generation
Authorized administrators generate I-9s through the online Web application. If the user is an authorized I-9 administrator, multiple administrative and management functions will be available on the left side of the screen. Generating I-9s online provides several compliance benefits such as:
- Protecting against errors with build-in editing features that detect input errors in real-time to help ensure the I-9 is generated correctly
- Preventing I-9 generation until all errors have been corrected
- Signing and I-9 online using electronic signatures
- Monitoring paper I-9s generated online to verify the signed form is received and stored
- Capturing expiration dates and other information from work eligibility documents
Once the I-9 is generated, it is printed for signatures or signed electronically. Signed paper I-9s are sent to the imaging center. The service includes the optional capability to verify newly hired employees automatically with the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. The verification will return a status as well as a confirmation number.
Lookup
Authorized users can lookup signed and unsigned I-9s using the online Web application. The signed I-9s are imaged and stored in the database. This allows the user to view and print an existing I-9 for review or re-verification purposes.
Administrators access the service via a secure connection at https://www.ei9verify.com. When accessing the system, the user is authenticated to a single sign on application specifically designed for the InfoMart suite of services.
Imaging
Completed paper I-9s are mailed to the InfoMart imaging center for processing. These I-9s are scanned to create PDF files that are indexed and stored in the repository. Optionally, supporting work eligibility documents are scanned, indexed, and stored in association with the appropriate I-9 in the repository. Once the I-9s are imaged, paper I-9s can be securely shredded to avoid the storage and maintenance costs associated with manually managing paper documents. I-9s and work eligibility documents in the repository can be viewed and printed through the secure online Web application. In addition, imaged I-9s prtect you from damage and loss due to fire, water, heat, humidity, and other factors that adversely affect paper documents.
Notification
One of the most difficult problems employers face with I-9 compliance is timely re-verification of work eligibility documents. If an employee’s work eligibility documentation is about to expire, the employer is required to examine any work eligibility document that reflects that the employee is authorized to work in the U.S. (see List A or C on the I-9 form), record the document title, document number and expiration date (if any) in Block C of Section 2 of the I-9, and complete the signature block. The expiration date for any item in Block C is captured when the I-9 is generated through the Web application or when the completed I-9 is imaged.
Employers may receive notice of a re-verification in two ways. First, the service posts a monthly compliance report on the Web application site. This report lists the individuals who have an upcoming expiration date for a work eligibility document that requires re-verification. There is also an option that will allow the employer to receive re-verification notices via e-mail.
When using the e-mail notification option, the employer is notified between 30 and 180 days prior to the expiration date of a document in Block C of Section 2 of the I-9. This provides sufficient notice to re-verify the employee’s information prior to the expiration date. Notices are sent twice, once at the configurable number of days and once at the halfway point.
Reports
There are two types of reports provided by eI9Verify. Compliance reports are used to monitor compliance with I-9 regulations and usage reports are used to monitor activity.
To help ensure compliance, the I-9s are matched against the company’s payroll data to insure every employee has a completed I-9. The employer can determine the start date for creating the universe of covered employees. This allows the employer to measure compliance from a specified go-forward date.
Compliance reports include:
- Compliance Summary - overall compliance rating
- Compliance Detail - missing I-9s
- Re-verification - I-9s with expiring work eligibility documents
- EEV Summary - verification status for transactions with DHS/SSA
Compliance reports can be downloaded on a monthly basis from the EI9Verify online Web application by users with appropriate authorization.
The usage reports provide monthly counts of the number of transactions performed through the Web application. In addition, the detailed transaction report lists for each I-9 generation and lookup transaction, the user performing the transaction as well as the employee whose I-9 was involved in the transaction. Reports are generated by division as well as across all divisions.