I-9 Compliance Program

An I-9 compliance program is the system your business uses to complete, store, and maintain Form I-9 correctly for every employee. Federal law has required this verification for every hire since 1986, and the forms must be produced on demand during an audit. A structured program keeps your records accurate and ready rather than scattered and risky. Our founder, Janie Sapon, has practiced immigration law for more than a decade and now focuses her practice on compliance. We build programs that hold up under inspection, so a Notice of Inspection becomes a manageable event instead of a crisis.

An audit begins when the government issues a Notice of Inspection, which gives an employer as little as three business days to produce its I-9 records. Inspectors review each form for technical and substantive violations. For technical or procedural failures, you generally receive at least ten business days to make corrections, but substantive violations can bring fines. How well you fare depends on the state of your records before the notice ever arrives. Our team, with decades of combined immigration experience and a 90 percent-plus approval rate over the past ten years, helps you prepare, respond, and manage the process.

Common problems include incomplete forms, missing signatures, late completion of Section 2, misplaced documentation, and failure to follow retention rules. Many errors that once looked like minor paperwork issues are now treated as substantive violations under current guidance. Correction also has strict rules: an employee must fix Section 1, while the employer may only correct Section 2, and a careless fix can create new liability. Both of our attorneys are active members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and our senior associate, Kathleen C. Lee, serves as a USCIS liaison, so our corrections follow current agency practice.

Employers must retain each Form I-9 for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. Forms for both active and qualifying former employees must be available for inspection. Retention is a frequent audit failure point, because records get lost, stored inconsistently, or discarded too soon. We review your storage practices, help you organize active and terminated-employee files, and set up a consistent, defensible retention system. Our team’s hands-on experience with high-volume hiring in agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing means we understand how quickly recordkeeping slips without a clear process.

Yes. Training is where lasting compliance comes from, because a program only works when the people completing the forms know the rules cold. We train your HR staff on proper verification, documentation, timing, and reverification, then remain available as counsel on call when questions arise. We can also help draft a written verification policy, which strengthens your position in an audit. Janie Sapon has centered her practice on compliance and has been admitted to the Kentucky Bar since 2012, so your team learns directly from an attorney who works in this area every day.