Form I-9 is what verifies the eligibility of a potential employee to work in the United States. There are various pieces of information that need to be filled out on the form. This form must be completed by all U.S. employers, regardless of the citizenship of the employer or employee. There are a few common mistakes that can be made and create trouble when filling out and submitting these forms. Knowing these common mistakes will allow you to avoid them. Here are some of the common mistakes when filling out a form for I-9 collection.
Illegible Writing
When you fill out the I-9 form, it will need to be easily read after the submission. If you’re not careful with the way that you write on the form, it could result in not being considered acceptable. Rather than filling the form out quickly and the way that you might usually write, as tempting as that might be, remember that others will be reading it. For this reason, you should use your best handwriting. This will ensure that you don’t need to do any more work to verify the eligibility of your employee.
Dates Not Matching Payroll
In section two of the I-9 form, you’ll need to provide the date when the employee began working for your company. This date needs to match the date listed on the payroll records. Some people think that this date will not be researched so it will be accepted as long as it’s close. However, you could suffer delays if the date doesn’t exactly match your payroll records. Ensuring that these two dates are the same before you submit your I-9 form will allow you to avoid any trouble during the process.
Interference with Information
When you fill out an I-9 form, you might include highlighting marks, hole punches, or staples. If you’re not careful, any of these can get in the way of the information being provided. This could make the submission difficult to read. When applying anything to the document, you should make sure that it doesn’t interfere with the information being provided. This could be the difference between the document being accepted or rejected.
The I-9 form is important because it verifies the identity of an employee and their eligibility to be working in the country. There are some common mistakes that are made when completing these forms that cause delays and for them to be filled out again. These are three of the common mistakes that you should avoid during I-9 collection.