Immigration-Law-For-Employers-w

If you own your personal enterprise or otherwise have workers, you might be, under federal law, an agent for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (previously the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In an effort to reduce back the hiring of undocumented immigrants, Congress created the I-9 verification process, which requires employers to substantiate the employment eligibility of employees. B1-B2 Visa and the visa waiver program use these I-9 varieties to find out whether employers are hiring undocumented workers.

I-9 forms are literally a constructive thing for employers, as a result of I-9 varieties present employers with a "good religion" defense if the employer hires a employee who is definitely working illegally within the United States.

Employers can get hold of I-9 types from the DHS (800-870-3676), or download them from the company's Web site. You can even write to the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.

DHS can begin an investigation about an organization using illegal employees at any time. An employer could be fined and sanctioned for hiring an undocumented worker. The commonplace in judging the wrongfulness of the employer's conduct is whether an inexpensive individual would consider the worker was illegally employed.

Every employer should complete I-9 types, even when the employer has just one employee. Hiring unbiased contractors doesn't set off the requirement to complete an I-9 kind.

If you, as an employer, obtain info and paperwork that, on their face, appear valid and constant, you don't want to research further. However, should you obtain obvious forgeries, data that does not match the worker, or different information that makes you assume you should ask extra questions, then you have to continue your inquiry as to the employee's immigration standing.

A good business practice is to conduct your self an audit or rent an immigration lawyer to audit your I-9's and supporting paperwork to be sure they adjust to the legislation. Here are some do's and don'ts when going via the I-9 verification course of:

During an worker's first day, give the employee an inventory of paperwork that can be utilized to verify status. Determine if the worker already has employment authorization. Ask questions about identify changes. Make certain documents provided by the employee are on the lists of acceptable documents. A good immigration lawyer might help you with these lists. Review paperwork for authenticity. Are there B1-B2 Visa and the visa waiver program of tampering or forgery? Reject documents if they are clearly fakes. If a doc appears valid on its face and is listed as a qualified doc on the I-9, settle for the document. Retain I-9's for 3 years, or one yr after employment ends, whichever is longer. I-9 varieties could be inspected by DHS on three days' discover, with out even a warrant or subpoena.