2026 Form I-9 fines and penalties: How to reduce risk

Form I-9 fines and compliance penalties are the monetary consequences employers face for failing to properly complete, verify, or retain employment eligibility records, and in 2026, these penalties range from paperwork fines of up to $2,861 per form to $28,619 per violation for knowingly hiring unauthorized workers, with additional penalties for document fraud depending on severity and repeat offenses. 

2026 Form I-9 fines and penalties at a glance

• Paperwork violations: $288–$2,861 per Form I-9
• Knowingly hiring unauthorized workers: $716–$28,619 per violation
• Document fraud violations: $590–$11,823+, depending on severity and repeat offenses

Why enforcement is heating up in 2026

I-9 compliance has always been a tightly controlled process. But in 2026, the tone has shifted in how organizations—and the government—are approaching employee authorization.

Immigration enforcement has now become a cornerstone policy priority. While this enforcement effort is sector-wide, targeted industries include agriculture, hospitality, construction, and manufacturing—industries where volume hiring, seasonal employment, and high turnover can make it easier for errors to slip through the cracks.

Meanwhile, changes to humanitarian orders like Temporary Protected Status have meant that some groups of employees are losing—or at risk of losing—their right to work in the US at short notice.

For workplaces, this means that the risk isn’t just about higher fines—it’s the operational reality. Organizations now face greater scrutiny, more frequent audits and site visits, and tighter timelines to make sure that their workforce is verified, and that their documentation and processes are up to scratch.

Overview of Form I-9 penalties: What’s changed in 2026?

The 2025/2026 I-9 penalties affect every category of I-9 violations—from the smaller clerical errors and typos, right up to more serious ones, such as knowingly hiring an unauthorized employee.

Here’s how the adjusted penalties shake out:

• Paperwork violations: A typo or a missing signature could now set you back from $288 to $2,861 per form.
• Knowingly hiring an unauthorized employee: Depending on the severity and frequency of the violation, intentionally hiring employees who are not authorized to work in the US can result in escalating fines.
• First offense: $716-$5,724
• Second offense: $5,724-$14,308
• Third or subsequent offense: $8,586-$28,619
• Document fraud: Presenting false documents, or other violations relating to the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), such as failing to inspect documentation properly, or document abuse (for example, asking for more documents than required), are also subject to higher penalties in 2025:
• First offense: $590-$4,730
• Second offense: $4,730-$11,823

Common I-9 errors that trigger penalties

I-9 errors can trigger both compliance penalties and direct fines, depending on the severity and frequency of the violation, and can quickly escalate when repeated across multiple forms or hiring cycles. But more often than not, it’s actually the finer details that end up being the highest cost.

Knowing how to spot these will help highlight fundamental process failures—and help you prevent them next time.

• Section 1 and Section 2 completion: These are the most common. They include employees failing to complete their form by their first day of work, missing or incomplete signatures, and employers failing to fill out Section 2 correctly.
• Reverification: If documentation or work authorization lapses and employers fail to act quickly to reverify in Section 3, it can result in a costly fine. This can be especially costly if reverification is tied to immigration status.
• Outdated forms: Using the wrong version of an I-9 form and failing to correct it can also result in a fine.
• Remote verification: The rise of the I-9 alternative procedure has led to a new pitfall around how organizations authorize employees from afar. By law, organizations that choose this option must be enrolled in E-Verify, train their staff, and maintain high-quality records.

How I-9 fines add up quickly for growing organizations

For growing employers, I-9 penalties are rarely isolated incidents—they often compound across payroll cycles, locations, and high-volume hiring periods. Because fines are assessed per Form I-9, even minor substantive or immigration-related errors can escalate into significant financial exposure during an I-9 inspection conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

As organizations scale, maintaining consistent employment eligibility verification practices across teams, systems, and locations becomes more complex—making it easier for small gaps to turn into repeat violations.

How I-9 penalties are calculated

When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determines penalties, fines are not issued arbitrarily. Enforcement agencies evaluate several factors together, including:

• The number of Form I-9 violations identified during an inspection
• Whether errors are classified as technical or substantive
• The employer must consider workforce size and total headcount
• Any history of prior violations
• Whether unauthorized alien employment is involved
• Evidence of good-faith compliance with employment eligibility verification requirements
• Inflation-adjusted penalty ranges are set annually by DHS

Employers may see penalties increase when the same verification requirements are missed repeatedly across different documents, locations, or hiring cycles—particularly when errors indicate process gaps rather than isolated mistakes.

Record retention requirements that impact fines

Retention errors are a common—and costly—source of I-9 violations. Employers must retain each employee’s Form I-9 for the later of:

• Three years after the date of hire, or
• One year after employment ends

Failure to properly retain identity and employment eligibility verification records can result in penalties, even when an employee had valid employment authorization. During an I-9 inspection, employers must be able to produce records quickly, accurately, and in full.

For organizations with high turnover or distributed payroll systems, retention gaps often surface only after ICE requests records—highlighting the importance of centralized retention practices and ongoing internal reviews.

5 ways to stay ahead of I-9 penalties

In the current I-9 landscape, prevention is always better than cure. Building always-on failsafes into your current I-9 process will help you spot bottlenecks, proactively fix broken links in your process, and minimize the risk of costly fines.

1. Conduct regular internal I-9 audits.

In the current environment, it pays to be proactive. Running regular internal I-9 audits will help you highlight key issues in your existing processes, and put fixes in place to address them before it’s too late.

As part of your spot audit process, you’ll want to answer the following questions:

• Accuracy: Are our I-9 forms complete, accurate, and up-to-date? If not, where are we seeing common errors?
• Timeliness: Are we consistently meeting all required timelines for completing, verifying, and reverifying work authorizations?
• Audit trail: How well are we recording, storing, and documenting I-9 processes?
• Storage: Would our document checks and storage—whether handled manually or through HR document management software— hold up under close inspection, or are there gaps that could look careless in an audit?
• Calibration: Do all staff members understand the process? How often do we calibrate and retrain staff?

2. Document good-faith corrections.

When you do spot errors, handling them as quickly and efficiently as possible will help reduce your risk of fines. This is because showing that you’re committed to compliance and have made every effort to create strong processes can actually count in your favor when an official audit occurs.

When you correct an error, make sure you update your internal documentation and audit logs up to date, too. Record the error, when it was fixed, and any other relevant detail—and make sure this sits in a centralized place. 

3. Train HR and managers on best practices—and refresh regularly.

With guidance and legal requirements changing frequently, regular staff training is critical to refreshing knowledge, increasing awareness, and minimizing audit vulnerabilities. 

Develop written procedures that step through every aspect of the I-9 completion process—from new hire requirements to familiarizing teams with reviewing identification and documentation, and using E-Verify, if you’re hiring remotely. Make sure this training is refreshed and run regularly to keep teams calibrated on what they need to do.

4. Integrate technology as part of I-9 processes.

In a workforce of hundreds, even the most structured of I-9 processes can start to feel the strain under the weight of manual checks and fragmented recordkeeping. But scale that to thousands of employees—spread across work sites or states—and the level of complexity will likely swamp your HR team.

Integrating the digital I-9 software and broader HR compliance software into your processes here can help eliminate the manual burden and risk of missed details and deadlines, streamlining processes and standardizing compliance workflows. 

These work by helping you automate key parts of the process that leave you open to risk, including automatic nudges when I-9 forms or reverification are due. They also provide a digital audit trail of any actions taken, helping you stay on top of a snap audit from ICE.

Some platforms (like us!) can also help teams detect fraudulent documents, provide a seamless user experience for employees, and give your HR team full visibility into every step.

5. Have a documented audit response plan for notices or inspections.

As ICE steps up workplace audits and raids, being prepared is key—even if you think you’re in good standing. Having a clear, documented plan for responding to any communication from ICE will mean your team is ready to act when the clock starts ticking.

Your audit response plan should cover the following questions:

• Who are your designated internal stakeholders in the event of an ICE Notice of Inspection (NOI) or raid?
• How will you communicate with employees if their records are pulled for review?
• Where are I-9 records stored, and who has access to them?
• What is our plan in the event of an on-site raid?

What to do if you get audited

Once you receive an NOI from ICE, understanding the steps of the process means you can respond efficiently, potentially reducing the risk of further fines. Responding to the audit request quickly and accurately is critical to building a strong case—most organizations get three business days to comply.

If your audit runs without a hitch (and we hope it does), you’ll receive a compliance letter. But if you have issues that require action, you will receive one of the following notices and a specific timeframe to address them. 

• Notice of discrepancies: ICE flagged discrepancies in your employee records, such as incorrect names, document issues, or identity concerns. You’ll typically be given a 10-day deadline to work with employees and correct the issues.
• Notice of suspect documents: ICE believes that one or more employees are unauthorized to work in the US. If this happens, you must inform the employees and give them a chance to submit new documentation.
• Notice of intent to fine or penalties: If you have made some serious violations or you have not corrected prior violations, you will be issued with a formal penalty. 

In the event of any kind of notice, bring in legal counsel early to communicate with ICE, and help you avoid volunteering details that you aren’t required to submit. Use your internal efforts as mitigating evidence to show your good-faith compliance, and stick to the federal guidelines and timelines for correction.

Stay ahead of I-9 fines—get audit-ready now

The I-9 fine amounts in 2026 are just one cog in an increasingly complex compliance machine. But the difference this year isn’t the dollar value of I-9 fines—it’s that the enforcement landscape is much more stringent. As a result, organizations have much less margin for error than ever before. 

Navigating the I-9 process effectively as an employer depends on building effective systems and processes that minimize your risk of errors. Proactive compliance processes, such as internal audits, training, and E-Verify adoption, can help keep processes streamlined and organized, meaning companies stay in good standing with ICE.

But organizations can also stay one step ahead with the right tech. WorkBright’s HR compliance audit services help teams identify I-9 errors and understand how to fix them, giving you confidence in the event of an audit. Learn all about it here.