I-9 and Onboarding Audit

The Form I-9 is a federally required form that verifies an employee’s right to work in the United States; it must be completed by all new hires and stored by their employer. The form must be completed within three business days of an employee’s start date to meet federal deadlines.

In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) eased the rules for the compliant completion of the form I-9 for new hires. Before the adjustment of rules, the form required an in-person inspection of authorization documentation—such as a passport or driver’s license and social security card—for each new employee. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the rise of remote work, this process became untenable and unsafe. With this in mind, the DHS allowed for remote verification of authorization documents. This method of I-9 completion then became the norm for many employers until the summer of 2023, when the flexibilities were ended and new protocols were released: in-person verification would again be required, and remote verification could only be continued if organizations used E-Verify, a DHS service used to verify employment eligibility. In addition to the new rules, forms I-9 initially completed under the COVID-19 flexibilities would have to be re-completed according to these new guidelines.

Revisiting I-9s on file in light of this announcement revealed massive holes in the onboarding practices in place for two of our client organizations. Beyond just I-9s, the organizations hadn’t retained offer letters, left some W-4s unsigned, and lacked a consistent and compliant process for onboarding new employees. Being caught out of compliance with the Form I-9 can be an expensive event with fines that can range from $200 to $2,000 per violation. Given this risk, Amethyst Operations acted quickly to bring our clients up to compliance and to create compliant processes for the future.

With the one-month deadline set by the Department of Homeland Security, Amethyst had to act quickly to assess the landscape and plan our next steps.

Learn

Amethyst started by doing a deep dive into the new policy released by the Department of Homeland Security, familiarizing ourselves with the form I-9 itself, the rules for compliance, and the process for compliant correction. Amethyst created multiple memos outlining best practices and summarizing guidelines to develop comfort and expertise with the new procedures.

Amethyst used the new policy to develop the process through which Amethyst would audit our I-9 forms on file and make any necessary corrections or additions while ensuring compliance during the audit itself as well as after its completion. This process would center on carefully dated and documented re-verification utilizing the inspection by Authorized Representatives allowed by the DHS.

Assess

Amethyst then carried out an audit of onboarding documents Amethyst had on file at the time, determining what documents Amethyst had in our possession, what was compliant according to both new and old DHS guidelines, and what Amethyst would need to gather from employees. To manage this data, Amethyst developed trackers for each organization, outlining documents currently on file and documents needed per employee.

At this stage, Amethyst discovered the extent of the noncompliance regarding forms I-9. At both organizations, most employees hired before the COVID-19 pandemic submitted only partially completed forms while employees hired during the pandemic flexibility would need to be reverified to remain compliant. The scope grew from a simple re-verification to a complete overhaul of onboarding processes.

Plan

Before Amethyst could begin reaching out to employees and collecting new and old documentation, Amethyst had to brief the organizations’ decision-makers and get their approval. For the audit to be successful, Amethyst needed not only their approval but also their buy-in and support. “Audit” can be a scary word, so Amethyst made sure to go into these meetings as prepared as possible.
Amethyst explained the importance of I-9s and the new DHS policy surrounding them as plainly as possible.

Amethyst emphasized the neutrality with which the audit must be presented to avoid any appearances of bias and remain compliant. Amethyst presented them with carefully crafted language they could use to introduce the audit to employees in an unbiased yet informative way.

Implement

Following the all-staff communication of the reasons for and process of the audit, Amethyst individually reached out to each employee for whom re-verification or additional documents were needed. In this case, all employees at both organizations required individual completion of a somewhat complex government form (I-9), so Amethyst had to ensure they could reliably be completed correctly without direct oversight. To accomplish this, Amethyst drafted a rigorous set of instructions clarifying the purpose of the form, explaining the use of Authorized Representatives, and detailing the process of completion, leaving as little room for questions or errors as foreseeably possible.

With that standard language ready to go, Amethyst sent out the individual emails, fielding questions and responses as they rolled in. In some cases, Amethyst received I-9s partially completed or completed incorrectly. When this happened, Amethyst would return the form to the employee and outline what changes or corrections needed to be made to ensure compliance.
The cultures of the two organizations differed. One was a fully remote organization with a more responsive communication environment, and the other was a hybrid with an office space and a fast-paced but less responsive communication environment. With this in mind, our strategies for following up with unresponsive employees varied. For the remote organization, Amethyst relied on detailed instructions and thoroughly answered all questions that arose. For the hybrid organization, Amethyst emphasized the availability of the organization’s office space to complete the I-9 with fellow employees.

Once Amethyst received a compliant form I-9 from an employee, Amethyst requested any additional missing documents, most often an offer letter and a signed form W-4. When all of these documents were received, an employee would be considered compliant and their part in the audit completed.

Integrate

After receiving and organizing new and updated documents from all employees and getting our client organizations into full compliance, Amethyst had to fix the problems in the onboarding processes which led to noncompliance in the first place. With our newfound comfort utilizing Authorized Representatives to complete forms I-9, Amethyst was able to provide instructions to managers with explicit instructions and what to do and (maybe more importantly) what not to do when onboarding new employees. Amethyst found an I-9 verification vendor Amethyst felt comfortable recommending to clients going forward. Amethyst also implemented an annual practice of renewing forms W-4 so they remain not only compliant, but also up-to-date and accurate when Amethyst needs to determine payroll deductions.

As an organization juggles numerous competing priorities, compliance can easily fall to the wayside, and Amethyst saw the results of an ignored and underdeveloped compliance process. Amethyst was able to clean up two organizations’ noncompliant authorization environments and turn them into smooth, compliant onboarding systems that Amethyst will be able to use going forward.

• Amethyst saved our client organizations from potential noncompliance fines of up to thousands of dollars.
• Amethyst identified holes in the onboarding process and remedied them with robust and compliant practices.
• Amethyst consolidated the document storage system and integrated it into the organizations’ respective HRIS interfaces.
• Amethyst developed expertise on federal policies and procedures around the form I-9.
• Amethyst created ongoing systems that organizations will utilize in the future.