Immigration Law For Employers
If you personal your own business or in any other case have workers, you're, beneath 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 course of, which requires employers to confirm the employment eligibility of employees. DHS investigators use these I-9 forms to determine whether or not employers are hiring undocumented employees.
I-9 varieties are literally a optimistic factor for employers, as a result of I-9 varieties provide employers with a "good religion" protection if the employer hires a worker who is definitely working illegally in the United States.
Employers can acquire I-9 varieties from the DHS (800-870-3676), or obtain them from the agency's Web 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 employing illegal employees at any time. An employer could be fined and sanctioned for hiring an undocumented employee. The normal in judging the wrongfulness of the employer's conduct is whether or not or not a reasonable particular person would consider the employee was illegally employed.
Every employer should full I-9 forms, even if the employer has only one worker. Hiring impartial contractors doesn't trigger the requirement to complete an I-9 form.
If you, as an employer, obtain data and paperwork that, on their face, seem legitimate and consistent, you do not need to analyze further. However, when you obtain apparent forgeries, data that doesn't match the worker, or other information that makes you think you should ask more questions, then you need to continue your inquiry as to the worker's immigration standing.
A good enterprise follow is to conduct yourself an audit or hire an immigration lawyer to audit your I-9's and supporting paperwork to make sure they comply with the regulation. Here are some do's and don'ts when going via the I-9 verification process:
During an employee's first day, give the worker a list of documents that can be used to verify status. Determine if the worker already has employment authorization. Ask questions about title modifications. Make positive paperwork provided by the worker are on the lists of acceptable paperwork. tier 5 visa lawyer virginia might help you with these lists. Review paperwork for authenticity. Are there apparent signs of tampering or forgery? Reject documents if they are clearly fakes. If a doc appears valid on its face and is listed as a professional doc on the I-9, accept the doc. Retain I-9's for 3 years, or one yr after employment ends, whichever is longer. I-9 varieties may be inspected by DHS on three days' notice, with out even a warrant or subpoena.
Employers can not discriminate against an employee because of citizenship standing or national origin through "document abuse," which is asking the employee for more documents than needed or different documents to show employment eligibility. However, employers do have duties to verify employment eligibility as outlined in this publish.
This publish is actually not complete, and I encourage my employer-clients to conduct immigration and I-9 audits annually. An immigration lawyer can provide you steering in systematizing these processes to ensure DHS compliance.