Certified Form I-9 Audit FAQ
These “frequently asked questions” about Form I-9 certified audits will help make this process as pain-free as possible. You should review this FAQ if:
- A client has required you to “get your I-9s certified” to satisfy a contract or so your employees can work on their job sites;
- You are a contractor (primary or sub-) on a contract with Verizon, Publix Supermarkets, FedEx, Walmart, Sam’s Club or another business where certification of Forms I-9 for your employees is required.
The Basics
A certified Form I-9 audit is a careful check of the Form I-9 paperwork for employees who will work on a certain contract. The purpose is to make sure the employer filled out each Form I-9 correctly and followed the law. An independent expert (someone who is not connected to the company) who really knows Form I-9 rules must do this review.
After the check is finished, the expert gives the employer an official letter or certificate. The employer can show this document to prove that the workers on the contract or job site are allowed to work in the United States right now.
A certified Form I-9 audit is not the same as a background check. We do not check your employees’ identities or confirm whether they are allowed to work. Instead, we check that you—the employer—correctly verified each employee’s identity and work eligibility using Form I-9, exactly as federal law requires.
Since 1986, federal law has required all employers to check that their new employees are legally allowed to work in the United States. To do this, the new employee and the employer must fill out Form I-9, called the “Employment Eligibility Verification” form.
The employee completes Section 1 with basic information such as their name, date of birth, Social Security number, and citizenship. The employer then checks the employee’s identity and work authorization by looking at specific identification documents and recording the details in Section 2.
The entire Form I-9 must be fully completed by the end of the employee’s fourth day of work. If the form is not filled out correctly or not at all, the employer can face fines.
Your client—or if you’re a subcontractor, your primary contractor’s client—wants to be sure that the employees you send to work under their contract or on their job sites are legally allowed to work in the United States.
They are worried about two main risks:
- Breaking federal immigration laws and facing penalties (their own liability), and
- Having the whole contract or project delayed or stopped if any of your workers are found to be unauthorized.
Any company, no matter how big or small, can require its contractors to get a certified I-9 audit of their employees’ I-9s.
Some well-known companies that already require I-9 certification include Walmart, Sam’s Club, FedEx, Publix Supermarkets, Waste Management, and Verizon.
The review costs $19 per Form I-9. Larger audits (with more forms) usually qualify for a discount, depending on the total number of forms or other conditions.
There is also a separate fee to prepare the official certification letter or certificate. The standard fee is $75, but it can be higher if your client requires a special certificate that must be filled out by hand (for example, Verizon’s version).
For first-time audits, payment is due when you make the request. For certificate renewals, we will send an invoice after the work is finished.
Preparing for a Certified Audit
When you request our service, upload a completed Form I-9 for each employee who will be included on the certification.
If you kept copies of the identification documents the employee showed you when they were hired, you can upload those too. Including the ID copies allows us to perform a more complete and accurate audit. It can also help reduce the number of errors that we might require you to fix.
Please combine everything into one PDF per employee: the Form I-9 plus any ID copies (if you have them).
No. Federal law requires employers to complete a Form I-9 for every new hire and keep it on file—updating or correcting it as needed—for as long as the employee works there, plus a short period after they leave.
Failing to do this is a serious violation. If ICE discovers mistakes or missing forms, you could face large fines, probation, or other penalties.
If a client requires a certified I-9 audit and your forms have serious problems or you haven’t completed the form at all, you risk losing that contract unless the issues are fixed quickly.
We can help you complete or correct Form I-9s quickly, easily, and in full compliance with the law. Request our Form I-9 service here or contact us with any questions.
Complete the audit request form here.
Be ready to:
- Upload each employee’s Form I-9 (and copies of their ID documents, if you have them);
- Submit payment if this is your first audit for this client or contract.
More Questions
Employers must keep employees’ personal information private and are generally not allowed to share Form I-9 with anyone who does not need to see it.
Federal law and I-9 rules also require employers to properly complete, keep, and update or correct Form I-9 for each employee.
If an employer cannot complete or fix a Form I-9 on its own, it can give that responsibility to someone else it chooses. This person or company becomes the employer’s “authorized representative.”
The authorized representative can complete or correct Form I-9 on the employer’s behalf and can receive or send I-9 information to help meet legal requirements.
Verifyi9 will serve as your authorized representative. We will receive and review your Forms I-9 to help you comply with the contract requirement and federal law.
As your authorized representative for this audit, Verifyi9 has the same legal duty as you do to keep Form I-9 information private and secure.
We use industry-standard tools and security methods to protect sensitive data. All information is stored on encrypted servers located in the United States. We keep your data only as long as needed to finish the review.
We are not allowed to share any personally identifiable information (PII) with anyone unless you specifically give us permission.
Every Verifyi9 employee who can access PII must pass regular background checks and agree to follow our strict security policies. We do not use independent contractors for our remote I-9 process—all staff who handle your employees’ information are full-time Verifyi9 employees based in the U.S., carefully vetted, trained, and insured by us, and fully bound by our data security rules.
Read this for more details about our data security practices.
To keep the cost of a certified audit as low as possible, Verifyi9 uses an automated process to create the certification.
We charge a higher fee only when an employer provides a custom certificate template that must be filled out by hand.