Mitigate Risk: I-9 Self Audit - Why and How

By: Brett A. Ekes on December 19, 2025

All employers are familiar with the Form I-9 that is required to be completed to verify their employee’s eligibility for employment. While such completion and maintenance of the I-9 seems routine for most employers, how does an employer ensure that it is in compliance with I-9 regulations? The most effective way to mitigate risk is to conduct an internal I-9 self audit.

Why Should We Conduct and Internal Self-Audit?

Along with ensuring compliance, conducting a self-audit can show good faith in the event of an audit by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as failure to comply can lead to severe fines and penalties. Once ICE arrives and provides the company with a Notice of Inspection (NOI) for the I-9 Forms, the employer has only three business days to produce the forms for inspection. If an employer’s forms and records are inaccurate, incomplete or forms are missing, an employer faces harsh penalties, including costly fines.  Penalties can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for each paperwork violation, and in certain cases, for repeat violations of an employer knowingly employing unauthorized workers, fines can exceed ten thousand dollars per violation.

Being prepared in the event of an audit by ICE can reduce confusion, ensure that all the necessary documents are available and can promptly be produced, reduce the stress of being faced with the unexpected NOI, and reduce the risk of penalties being imposed on your business.

How Do We Conduct and Internal I-9 Self-Audit?

The first step in conducting an internal I-9 audit is fairly obvious, locate the file where all of the I-9 Forms are kept. Next, make sure we have an I-9 on file for each current employee. The easiest way to do so is to compare current payroll records with the I-9 Forms on file. If an I-9 Form is not on file for a current employee, immediately ask that employee to complete Section 1 of a new I-9 Form. You should give the employee 3 days to then produce the documents for Section 2.

Next, you should remove any I-9 Form for any employee that is no longer employed. You should have separate I-9 folders for each year for employees whose employment ended during that year. Remember, you must retain I-9 Forms for 3 full years from the date of employment separation. Best practice is to have a retention policy for I-9 Forms that provides confirmation that the I-9 Form can be discarded.

Next, all of the I-9 Forms for current employees should be reviewed for completeness and for errors. If any information needs to be changed, a deletion from the I-9 should be made with a line to cross out information that leaves the original information readable. All additions and deletions should be initiated and dated. Do not back date any information on the I-9 Form.

If there is an error or incomplete information in Section 1, it must be corrected by the employee. The employee must then initial and date the correction. If there is an error in Section 2, it must be corrected by the employer, typically by someone in HR, who must then initial and date the correction.

If the error in Section 2 was an error in the documents provided in List A, B or C, the same person who originally completed the form must make the correction to ensure the certification remains true. If a different person makes the correction, the correction should be made in Section 3.

In certain instances, the review of an I-9 Form may reveal that the employee did not provide the required documents or that a reverification was not completed. In this case, immediately request further documentation from the employee. The employee should be given 3 days to provide the requested information. If the employee does not provide the requested information within 3 days, you could consider a suspension or even termination of the employee. Remember, an employer faces hefty penalties for employing unauthorized workers.  Prior to taking such action, however, it would be prudent to contact legal counsel for advice so an employee is not illegally suspended or terminated.

Finally, you should review the I-9 Forms in the terminated employee folders for errors. Note that you cannot correct any errors in Section 1 because that employee is no longer employed, but you should correct any errors in Section 2 as described above.

Tips for I-9 Compliance.

First, keep great records. Ensure you have a simple but efficient filing system for all I-9 Forms. It is best practice to have a folder for current employees and separate folders for each year employees are terminated.

When completing Section 2, you should only accept valid identification and documents. Don’t accept expired documents or copies of documents. You may want to track expiration dates of documents to ensure you remain in compliance.

Remember you must not discriminate when verifying an employee’s authorization to work. There may be a fine line between requesting too much and too little to verify employment, so just rely on the information that is required on the form.

Finally, always ensure that the forms being used are up to date and the most recent form available from the USICS. The most recent I-9 Form is usually always available at https://www.uscis.gov/i-9.