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Employer Guide to Employment Verification Requirements

Written by: Steven J. Weil, PhD, EA

Article Overview: As an employer your role in documenting alien employees can be tricky. Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) you are required to substantiate through review of certain documents that your employees are authorized to work in the United States while simultaneously avoiding unfair employment practices. Penalties for I-9 violations can be expensive, in some cases civil penalties have reached over $50,000. With this quick guide you can ensure all of your company is in compliance with all regulations.

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Employer Guide to Employment Verification Requirements

Employer Guide to Employment Verification Requirements

As an employer your role in documenting alien employees can be tricky. Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) you are required to substantiate through review of certain documents that your employees are authorized to work in the United States while simultaneously avoiding unfair employment practices. Penalties for I-9 violations can be expensive, in some cases civil penalties have reached over $50,000. With this quick guide you can ensure all of your company is in compliance with all regulations.

It is required that you complete an I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form for all new hires within three days of the employee's first day on the job. The only exception to the three day rule is if the new employee lacks a required piece of documentation and shows a receipt proving they have applied for a replacement document. All documents must be presented and the I-9 form completed within 90 days of the employee's first day of work. You can conduct the I-9 verification process before the new hire starts work, but you should not initiate it before a job offer is made and accepted as hiring someone after seeing documents that reveal citizenship status, age, and national origin could be grounds for a discrimination claim. The form must be kept on file for three years from the hiring date or one year after termination, whichever is later.

There are three categories of acceptable documents for the I-9 form. You must have either one document from List A or one document each from List B and C.

List A

List B

List C

Documents that establish both identity and employment eligibility

Documents that establish identity

Documents that establish employment eligibility

Example: U.S. passport or temporary resident card

Example: drivers license or voter registration

Example: Social Security Card or birth certificate

You must verify the original documents as photocopies are not acceptable and you must accept documents that appear authentic. If documents appear to be falsified or belong to someone else, contact the nearest Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) office.

All employees hired after November 6. 1986 are required to have an I-9 on file, regardless of citizenship or hours worked. If the employee received a W-2 tax statement the I-9 is required. You are not required to have an I-9 for independent contractors or their workers, but you should ensure that the workers have gone through verification. By knowingly using an independent contractor who employs unauthorized alien workers you can face a potential I-9 violation.

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Article Tags: acceptable documents, cellpadding, citizenship status, civil penalties, discrimination claim, employer guide, employment eligibility verification, employment verification, immigration reform, job offer, national origin, nbsp, new hires, receipt, replacement document, table border, td width, tr tr, unfair employment practices, verification requirements

About the Author: Steven J. Weil, PhD, EA
RSS for Steven's articles - Visit Steven's website

Dr. Weil is the president of RMS Accounting, in Fort Lauderdale FL and Franchise Business Systems, in Fort Lauderdale FL, he has been a featured speaker on local and national TV and Radio shows. Dr. Weil is Enrolled to Practice before the Interneal Revenue Service and teaches classes on many business topics. He has been a featured speaker for franchise and business groups and works with business owners, franchisees and franchisors accross the US on increasing profits and reducing taxes. Dr. Weil can be reached by email at steve@rmsaccounting.com.

www.rmsaccounting.com                                                           www.franchiseaccounting.com



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