Form I-9 Compliance Essentials: Audit Readiness and Best Practices for 2026

Are you confident your organization is in full compliance with Federal immigration laws, or are you at risk for being assessed costly fines, or worse, for potential violations?
For many employers, Form I9 compliance has become one of the most overlooked — and most dangerous — areas of workplace compliance. Federal immigration enforcement activity has intensified dramatically, and employers across industries are once again finding themselves under the microscope. An ICE Notice of Inspection does not come with weeks to prepare. It comes with a recently re-affirmed strict three-business-day deadline to produce your I9 forms, and by then it can often be too late to fix years of compliance errors and omissions.
What makes this especially alarming is that external audits consistently reveal staggering error rates (currently 76% of paper I9s contain at least one fine-able error) in employer I9 records. Missing signatures, incomplete reverifications, outdated forms, remote hire mistakes, improper document review procedures, and inconsistent retention practices are exposing organizations to significant liability. And these are not harmless paperwork issues. Civil penalties can exceed tens of thousands of dollars per violation, while patterns of noncompliance can increase the costs of violations and may trigger expanded investigations, operational disruption, reputational damage, and even criminal scrutiny in extreme cases.

Session Highlights:

• What is Form I-9 and who must comply?
• Employer and employee responsibilities when completing Form I-9
• Exceptions for completing and retaining Forms I-9
• Common Form I-9 errors and the updated categories of violations
• Procedures for correcting errors & omissions
• The final ruling that increases the automatic extension period of employment authorization and/or Employment Authorization Documentation
• Use of electronic signatures in the I-9 process
• I-9 Documentation verification procedures for remote workers
• Form I-9 retention rules
• Form I-9 Internal and External Audits
• Weathering the potential for an “ICE storm” – ICE audits are drastically on the rise!
• Fines currently range from hundreds to thousands of dollar per form
• The process of conducting self-audits
• ICE Enforcement Audits
• 3-day production of I-9 timelines have been reaffirmed
• Inspection Notices & their meanings
• Consequences of non-compliance
• The E-Verify system
• DHS-authorized remote I-9 verification is now permanent only for E-Verify users in good standing
• E-Verify is NOT a substitution for the I-9 process
• E-Verify rules & procedures

Why You Should Attend:

Who Will Benefit: