What Is an I-9?

An I-9 is provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and is used by employers to verify an individual's identity and employment authorization, and if they are legally eligible to work for a company. The employee is to complete the I-9 form and provide acceptable proof of identity and employment authorization, such as, but not limited to, a U.S. passport, permanent resident card, driver's license, social security card, etc. Employers will then verify the documents, such as with E-Verify, to confirm the legitimacy of the information provided/documents and retain the employee's I-9 form for their employment and for a set duration after departure.

Per information from the Associated General Contractors of America, failure to comply with I-9 form guidelines carries fines ranging from $281 to $2,789 per I-9 form violation. Knowingly employing unauthorized workers carries fines ranging from $698 to $5,579 per unauthorized worker for the 1st violation, with increased fines for 2nd and 3rd violations.

How We Can Help

To assist you with the I-9 form and maintain compliance, we offer several methods and tools to capture and retain employees’ information with a consistent and convenient experience in our Onboarding and Core HR solutions. Even with these tools, it is still critical for your organization to adhere to its own compliance processes to ensure nothing is overlooked.

It may also be helpful for you to consult with your own legal or compliance counsel to determine how our tools and offerings can support your compliance efforts, requirements, and obligations.

Our current offering is a "fillable I-9 form", a digital version of the paper I-9 form, which differs from an "electronic I-9 form". 

With Onboarding

• Provides a streamlined experience to electronically record your employees' information, documents, and e-signatures for I-9s by using a fillable I-9 form with required fields, optional/blank fields (where applicable), and e-signatures attestation signed off by the new hire and employer before signing.
• The employee's and employer's representative e-signatures are recorded with timestamps for added assurance and are accessible by report.
• The employee's completed I-9 will be electronically retained for as long as desired in the electronic filing cabinet of Onboarding.

• Authorized access at time of hire for completing and viewing the form by the new hire and the employer representative.

• Authorized users with sufficient permission in Onboarding can view, download, or export the completed form from the electronic filing record.
• An I-9 Audit Trail Report to help you manage your I-9 documents by offering visibility into form and user interactions.

With Core HR

• Fillable I-9 forms can be assigned with workflows for employees and an employer representative to complete.
• Authorized users with sufficient permission in Core HR can view, download, or export the completed form from the employee’s document file.
• The employee's completed I-9 will be electronically retained for as long as desired.
• When an employee leaves the company and the required form retention period has been met, they can be manually deleted as per your company's guidelines.

What We Cannot Do

While we offer a variety of options and features to help you streamline and maintain I-9 compliance, some situations will still require your involvement:

• If an employee's I-9 form needs to be reverified or corrected, it must be done manually outside of Onboarding and Core HR.
• Your new hires, employees, and employer representatives must be actively involved in your compliance process to verify that documents are valid, that provided information is correct, that documents are retained as required, etc.