Maintaining An Employer Sanctions Compliance Program
Maryland immigration lawyer Meetesh Patel has an excellent post about employer sanctions on his Immigration Law Blog.
Here is a portion of the post from attorney Patel:
Tips for Maintaining an Employer Sanctions Compliance Program
- Set up internal protocols for handling I-9 forms, including training.
- Do regular audits of your I-9 forms.
- Complete section one of the I-9 form on the first day that an employee begins work. The remainder of the I-9 form must be completed within three business days. If a worker fails to bring the documentation required by the I-9 within that time period, you may fire them.
- Do not request specific documentation from worker to verify employment eligibility. Let the workers choose from the list of acceptable documents listed on the I-9 form.
- Do not accept any documents that are not originals except for those stated on the I-9 form.
- If an employee provides a document that is not listed on the I-9 form, hand the document back to the employee and ask for another one from the I-9 list.
- If during a review of your records you discover that I-9 forms from certain employees are missing, get the documentation from those individuals immediately.
- If documentation provided by employees looks genuine on its face, do not ask for more proof as this can subject you to a national origin discrimination claim.
- Keep all I-9 records for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date of dismissal, whichever is later.
- Treat all employees and job applicants equally.
