I-9 audits for NEMT companies: the Notice of Inspection, three business days, and fines per form

What starts an I-9 audit

An I-9 audit, which ICE calls an administrative inspection, begins when Homeland Security Investigations serves your company a Notice of Inspection. You get at least three business days to produce the Forms I-9 it asks for (8 CFR 274a.2(b)(2)(ii)). No subpoena or warrant is needed, and refusing or delaying is itself a violation of the retention rules. If you do not comply, officers can subpoena the forms and other records.

HSI usually asks for more than the forms. ICE’s inspection overview lists a copy of your payroll, a list of active and terminated employees, articles of incorporation, and business licenses as examples of supporting documents it may request. Immigration officers are not the only ones entitled to look: federal law also requires you to make the forms available to the Justice Department’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (the statute still calls it the Special Counsel) and the Department of Labor (8 U.S.C. 1324a(b)(3)).

How Form I-9 is filled out at hire, and where E-Verify fits, is covered in E-Verify for NEMT companies. Retention periods for every employee record, the I-9 included, are listed in how long to keep employee records.

The first three business days

The deadline is short, so work through it in order:

1. Put the deadline on the calendar and name one person to run the response.
2. List everyone the notice covers: current employees and former employees whose retention period has not ended. That period runs until the later of three years after hire or one year after the person left.
3. Pull every Form I-9 with any copies of identity and work documents you kept, plus any supplement pages.
4. Gather the supporting records the notice names, usually payroll and an employee list. Compare the two: a driver on payroll with no Form I-9 is a violation ICE will find.
5. Produce the forms in the format you keep them: original paper, the electronic form, a paper printout of it, or microfilm. If they are kept somewhere else, tell the officer where and arrange the inspection there.
6. Date any correction the day you make it. Never backdate. ICE will not issue a warning notice if there is any sign of fraud, and it names backdating as its example.
7. Call an immigration lawyer if the notice covers many forms or you suspect workers are not authorized.

Technical errors versus substantive ones

ICE sorts what it finds into two groups, and the difference decides whether you get a chance to fix it. Technical or procedural failures get at least 10 business days for correction after ICE explains them (8 U.S.C. 1324a(b)(6)). Corrected in time, they are treated as good faith compliance. Left uncorrected, they become substantive violations.

ICE’s examples of technical failures:

• Using a version of Form I-9 that was not current when any part of it was first filled out.
• Missing other last names used or the physical address in Section 1. A missing email address or phone number is not a violation.
• For E-Verify users, a wrong Social Security number for the employee.
• Missing the employee’s name at the top of the second page or a supplement, or your business name or physical address in Section 2.

Substantive violations are fined without a correction window. ICE’s list includes:

• No Form I-9 at all, or failing to present one when asked.
• Section 1 not completed by the first day of work, or Section 2 not completed within three business days of the date of hire.
• An employee’s missing signature or date, an unchecked or double-checked citizenship or status box, or a missing A-number or admission number where the chosen status requires it.
• Failing to record the document title, issuing authority, number, or expiration date, or not signing and dating the employer certification.
• Missing a reverification in Supplement B by the date temporary work authorization expires.
• Using the Spanish version outside Puerto Rico.

For a NEMT company that hires drivers in waves before a new broker contract starts, Section 2 timing is the error to watch. The three business days run from the first day of work for pay, and paid orientation or broker training counts, even when the first trip is weeks away.

The notices ICE can send

During the inspection, ICE can send notices that need action from you:

• Notice of Technical or Procedural Failures. Lists fixable errors and gives at least 10 business days to correct them.
• Notice of Suspect Documents. ICE has found that an employee’s documents do not relate to them or are not valid for work, and warns of penalties for continuing to employ someone unauthorized. The employee may present proof of valid work authorization.
• Notice of Discrepancies. ICE cannot determine whether certain employees are authorized. Give each affected employee a copy and a chance to bring ICE more documents.
• Notice of Expired or Rescinded Immigration Status or Employment Authorization. Some employees lost work authorization after the audit date. It does not allege wrongdoing.

The inspection ends with one of three outcomes. A Notice of Inspection Results, also called a compliance letter, means no problems. A Warning Notice is used when there are substantive violations but ICE expects future compliance, and it is not available if you had a previous warning or fine, failed to fix technical errors in the 10 business days, failed to prepare or present forms, or there is evidence of fraud. A Notice of Intent to Fine covers substantive violations, uncorrected technical failures, and knowing-hire violations.

How much is the I-9 fine per form?

Paperwork fines run $288 to $2,861 for each form with a substantive or uncorrected violation occurring after November 2, 2015 (8 CFR 274a.10(b)(2)). Those are the 2025 figures. Federal agencies skipped the 2026 inflation increase on OMB’s instruction, since the consumer price index for October 2025, which the formula needs, was never released. The date ICE serves the Notice of Intent to Fine decides which year’s range is used.

ICE works out the amount in two steps:

1. A base fine set by the violation percentage (the forms with violations divided by the forms that should have been presented) and by whether this is a first, second, or later offense.
2. Adjustments for five factors the law lists: business size, good faith, seriousness, whether any unauthorized workers were involved, and history of violations. Each one moves the base fine up 5 percent, down 5 percent, or not at all, for a total swing of up to 25 percent either way.

As an example, a company with 40 forms that should have been presented and 10 with substantive errors has a violation rate of 25 percent. At the regulation’s limits, those 10 forms carry a fine between $2,880 and $28,610 before any other charges. Knowingly hiring or continuing to employ someone without work authorization is a separate violation, starting at $716 to $5,724 per worker for a first offense and rising for later ones.

Contesting a Notice of Intent to Fine

You have 30 calendar days from receiving a Notice of Intent to Fine to request a hearing before an administrative law judge at the Justice Department’s Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer. ICE must receive the request within that time. If it does not, ICE issues a Final Order, and there is no appeal from a final order.

A timely hearing request also opens the door to settlement talks with ICE. If you reach an agreement, ICE does not file a complaint with the hearing office; if you do not, ICE files one and the case goes to a hearing. Given the short deadline and the money involved, have an immigration lawyer read the notice the week it arrives.

Self-audits and correcting old forms

A self-audit is voluntary, and federal guidance from ICE and the Justice Department sets out how to do one without creating new problems:

• Audit everyone, or a sample picked by neutral criteria. Auditing only certain workers, or acting on an anonymous tip with no sign of reliability, can be discrimination or retaliation.
• Tell employees in writing that an audit is happening, why, and whether the government asked for it. Raise any problem with the employee privately, with copies of their form.
• Only the employee corrects Section 1. Have them draw a line through the error, write the correct information, and initial and date it. For a former employee, attach a signed and dated note explaining the error and why it could not be fixed.
• You correct Section 2 or Supplement B the same way. Never use correction fluid or erase. For many errors, complete the section again on a new form and attach it to the old one with a signed, dated explanation.
• A missing form is completed now on the current version, with the actual start date of employment, never backdated, and a signed and dated note attached.
• An outdated edition filled out correctly in good faith can be fixed by attaching a note, or by attaching it to a blank current form that you sign with a note saying why.
• Do not ask for specific documents. If a document is in doubt, let the employee choose any acceptable document instead.

Check which edition you are using. USCIS’s current Form I-9 is dated 01/20/25, and since August 1, 2026 only versions with the 05/31/2027 expiration date may be used, on paper or in an electronic I-9 system.

Remote document checks and the alternative procedure box

Forms completed by video review get two extra checks in an inspection. You must produce the copies of the front and back of each document you reviewed remotely, and ICE counts a checked alternative procedure box in Section 2 as a substantive violation when you were not an active E-Verify participant or registered in a DHS remote examination program. Who may use the video procedure, and how it works, is covered in hiring remote dispatchers.

Keeping driver credentials current in HealthRide

Form I-9 lives in your hiring files, but the credentials that let a driver take trips keep changing after hire. HealthRide tracks each driver’s license, certifications, and training dates in fleet and credentials, sends reminders before they expire, and warns dispatch before an expired driver is assigned a trip.