HR leaders cannot afford to treat I‑9 and immigration compliance as a back-office formality anymore; it sits at the center of workforce strategy, risk management, and your ability to reliably hire the talent your business needs. As a business immigration attorney, I see sophisticated employers tripped up not by intent, but by inconsistent processes and a misunderstanding of how immigration trends intersect with everyday hiring decisions.

Why I‑9 Compliance Is a Business Issue, Not Just a Form

Form I‑9 is required for every employee hired in the United States after November 6, 1986, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. It is the mechanism by which employers verify identity and work authorization, and it is also the foundation for government audits and enforcement actions.

When I speak with HR leaders, we often focus on three realities:

• Civil fines for I‑9 violations are now significant and rising annually with inflation, with paperwork penalties alone ranging roughly from the low hundreds to several thousand dollars per form.
• Penalties for “knowing hire” or “continuing to employ” violations can reach tens of thousands of dollars per unauthorized worker, particularly where there are prior offenses.
• Procedural errors, including missed signatures, late completion, or improper document handling, can trigger fines even when every worker is in fact authorized.

In other words, getting the immigration strategy right at the top while neglecting I‑9 fundamentals at the frontline is a high-cost mismatch.

Work Visas and I‑9: Where Strategy Meets Compliance

Many HR leaders focus on the visa itself, which may include H‑1B, L‑1, TN, E, O, or employment-based green cards, without fully integrating those decisions into their compliance workflow. Yet the same hire who requires visa sponsorship will also require careful I‑9 onboarding, reverification, and tracking.

A few immigration trends and policy developments matter directly for employer visa programs and downstream I‑9 compliance:

• E‑Verify and the newer E‑Verify+ platform: While still voluntary at the federal level, some states require participation; E‑Verify+ integrates I‑9 data and allows employees to submit information and documents through a secure portal, which can reduce data entry errors and streamline verification for multi-site employers.
• EAD and status changes: DHS has expanded and adjusted employment authorization for certain categories (such as some parole and humanitarian programs), and E‑Verify now offers tools like a “Status Change Report” to flag cases where an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) has been revoked, requiring prompt reverification decisions.
• Escalating penalties for worksite noncompliance: Adjustments in 2024 and 2025 raised the range of fines for both paperwork violations and knowingly employing unauthorized workers, underscoring the expectation that employers actively manage work authorization across the employee lifecycle, not just at hire.

For HR, that means immigration sponsorship, workforce planning, and I‑9 policy cannot live in separate silos. Visa approval does not end your obligations; you must track expiration dates, extensions, and changes in work authorization and reflect them correctly on the I‑9.

Core I‑9 Responsibilities for HR Leaders

Every HR team should be able to answer “yes” to three questions: Are we completing forms correctly and on time? Are we examining documents appropriately? Are we retaining and storing I‑9s in a way that stands up to an audit?

Four key responsibilities include:

1. Timely completion:
   • Section 1 must be completed by the employee no later than the first day of employment.
   • Section 2 must be completed by the employer within three business days of the employee’s first day of work for pay.
2. Proper document review:
   • Employees choose which documents to present from the Lists of Acceptable Documents; employers may not demand specific documents or more documents than required, as doing so can constitute “document abuse” and trigger separate fines under anti-discrimination rules.
   • Employers must make a good-faith determination that documents reasonably appear genuine and relate to the person presenting them, but they are not expected to be forensic experts.
3. ​Reverification and tracking:
   • If an employee’s work authorization has an expiration date, HR must have a system to track and reverify it by or before that date, using unexpired List A or List C documentation and the appropriate I‑9 supplement.
   • When DHS or E‑Verify tools indicate that a previously accepted EAD has been revoked, employers should promptly reverify using acceptable documents, while avoiding discriminatory practices in how employees are treated and which documents are requested.
4. Retention and storage:
   • I-9s must generally be retained for the longer of three years after the date of hire or one year after the date employment ends, which can result in long retention periods for long-tenured employees.
   • Forms should be stored in a secure, centralized system so HR can quickly respond to a Notice of Inspection. Using a separate I‑9 file (rather than mixing forms with personnel records) often makes audits more manageable.

These are not merely technical steps; they are a structured way to protect your business when enforcement attention turns to your workplace.

Penalties, Audits, and “Hidden” Business Risks

The legal exposure from I‑9 and immigration noncompliance is more than just a theoretical threat. Enforcement agencies can impose civil fines, debarment from federal contracts, and in serious cases, criminal charges for egregious violations.

Recent penalty schedules illustrate the stakes for employers:

• Paperwork violations:
  • Substantive and uncorrected technical I‑9 errors can draw fines in the hundreds to nearly three thousand dollars per form after inflation adjustments in 2024–2025.
• Unauthorized employment:
  • Knowingly hiring unauthorized workers or continuing to employ violations can lead to progressively higher fines per unauthorized worker, rising into the tens of thousands as prior violations accumulate.
• Discrimination and document abuse:
  • Separate penalties apply for treating workers differently in the I‑9 or E‑Verify process based on citizenship or national origin, or for requesting more or different documents than required.

Beyond fines, HR leaders need to consider:

• Operational disruption if a large portion of the workforce is found to be unauthorized and must be removed on short notice.
• Reputational harm if an investigation becomes public, particularly for consumer brands and publicly traded companies.
• The impact on carefully planned visa programs if key sponsored employees cannot be quickly reverified or if corporate changes disrupt their underlying immigration status.

Proactive compliance is far less costly than emergency response after an audit or investigation begins.

Practical Steps HR Can Take Now

From my work with employers, the organizations that navigate employer visas and I‑9 compliance most successfully share a few practical habits:

• Build a standardized onboarding checklist:
  • Include I‑9 completion timelines, document review steps, and, if applicable, E‑Verify case creation as part of your standard new-hire process so managers across locations follow the same playbook.
• Align immigration sponsorship with HR data:
  • Connect your immigration tracking (for H‑1B, L‑1, TN, E, O, and green card cases) with HRIS data so expiration dates, job location changes, and material duty changes are flagged for both immigration counsel and HR before they become I‑9 or work authorization problems.
• Conduct periodic internal I‑9 audits:
  • Carefully planned internal audits, conducted in a non-discriminatory way, help identify systemic errors and allow corrections before an agency inspection.
  • Use DOJ and DHS guidance to structure your audits so they do not themselves create discrimination or retaliation risks.
• Train HR and hiring managers:
  • Provide regular training on how to complete the current version of Form I‑9, how to handle reverification, and how to avoid document abuse or discriminatory practices.
  • Update training when there are changes in tools, such as E‑Verify+, or in penalty structures that signal heightened enforcement expectations.
• Establish an escalation path:
  • Give HR a clear protocol for elevating complex cases, such as mismatch notices, EAD revocations, or major corporate changes, so immigration counsel can help assess risk and options.

Thoughtful HR leaders increasingly see I‑9 and immigration compliance not as a constraint, but as an essential infrastructure supporting growth, talent mobility, and reputation in a heavily regulated environment. By pairing a sound employer visa strategy with disciplined I‑9 practices, you protect both your organization and the employees who power it.

Sources:

• U.S. Department of Justice
• Federal Register
• SHRM
• Immigration Policy Tracking Project