The Importance of an Internal I-9 Audit Checklist

Employers have one of the most useful tools available to them when conducting internal i-9 audits: an internal I-9 audit checklist that verifies compliance with ICE and OSC regulations.

Employers that discover errors on Form I-9s must promptly correct them to avoid further issues with compliance. Typically, companies should cross out incorrect information in a different color of ink and add corrected details that are initialed and dated as quickly as possible.

Gather Documents

An essential first step of the process is collecting all relevant documentation, such as I-9 forms, E-Verify results copies and any additional supporting documents.

This section of the audit checklist is dedicated to identifying processes which are causing issues and making improvements to overall system. Employees may provide ideas as to how the company could run more smoothly during this portion of the audit.

Auditors review the quality planning process and check for various pieces of information such as test summaries, production data and inspection reports - it is an extremely comprehensive part of an audit.

The next part of an audit entails verifying compliance with quality management systems. This involves reviewing records, certificates of training, employee qualification assessments, etc. This section is crucial and can determine whether or not your process is running efficiently.

Verify Documents

An internal audit can reveal errors that need to be rectified, often minor but still having the potential for fines. Errors typically fall into two categories: technical and substantive. Technical errors typically involve paperwork issues such as misspellings or misplaced numbers that should be resolved quickly without incurring fines; on the other hand, substantive errors involve actual violations of law such as undocumented employment status or expired visas for workers - these must also be rectified as soon as possible to avoid fines being levied against ICE fines are levied against these instances as soon as they surfaced - before fines were issued against individuals for violating them in time to prevent them incurred fines may incur.

Correct any mistakes by crossing out incorrect information with a different color of ink and writing in what needs to be changed in its place. Also consider providing a signed and dated explanation for each change that can be attached to an I-9 form, so if an employee is terminated due to Tentative Non-Confirmation in E-Verify they have evidence of good faith efforts made towards compliance.

Communicate with Employees

Once an audit is complete, it's crucial that its findings are communicated to employees. This allows anyone who may have questions or voice any concerns to do so and have them addressed promptly - potentially helping prevent any future issues from becoming more severe.

Additionally, it's essential that employers notify their employees about any potential violations. For instance, if an I-9 form is missing one or more essential documents, an employer must immediately provide these to their employee and give them copies for signature.

Implement a document storage system. Physical copies should be kept safely out of reach from water and weather damage and only accessible by those granted access. Digital copies should also be stored safely to safeguard against disasters that might otherwise destroy or alter them.

Ensure Accuracy

Internal auditing requires correcting any omissions or discrepancies that arise, and one effective method for doing this is drawing a line through any incorrect information and writing in what needs to be corrected before initialing and dating the corrections.

Assure the correct information is on the form and prevent errors from being overlooked in the future. For instance, if an employee mistypes their social security number by writing it in list B instead of list C it can easily be corrected by crossing out incorrect details and adding initials and dates in different colors of ink.

As with any correction, it's crucial that corrections do not violate discrimination laws. For example, if an employee misremembers when they started employment and you correct this error by backdating their I-9 form - this may constitute discrimination and lead to fines; using an electronic system for verifying Section 2 documents is an ideal solution to avoiding such conflicts.