Form I-9 Penalties and Fines: The Current Amounts and How ICE Sets Them
Updated 12 min read
Every Form I-9 penalty in one table
| Violation | Counted | Minimum | Maximum | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paperwork violation (Form I-9 not done, done late or done wrong) | Per form | $288 | $2,861 | 8 CFR 274a.10(b)(2) |
| Knowing hire or continuing to employ, first offense | Per unauthorized worker | $716 | $5,724 | 8 CFR 274a.10(b)(1)(ii)(A) |
| Knowing hire or continuing to employ, second offense | Per unauthorized worker | $5,724 | $14,308 | 8 CFR 274a.10(b)(1)(ii)(B) |
| Knowing hire or continuing to employ, third or later offense | Per unauthorized worker | $8,586 | $28,619 | 8 CFR 274a.10(b)(1)(ii)(C) |
| Requiring a worker to post an indemnity bond | Per violation | $2,861 | Fixed amount | 28 CFR 68.52(c)(7) |
| E-Verify employer not telling DHS it kept a worker after a final nonconfirmation | Per worker | $998 | $1,992 | 28 CFR 68.52(c)(6) |
| Document abuse (asking for more or different documents) | Per person | $236 | $2,364 | 28 CFR 68.52(d)(1)(xii) |
Form I-9 fines are set per form and per worker, not per inspection. A 40-person employer with sloppy paperwork does not face one fine; it faces a fine for each form that is missing, late or wrong. That is why a small-business audit can end with a five-figure notice even when every employee is authorized to work.
The amounts above are the 2025 inflation-adjusted figures. They apply to penalties assessed after January 2, 2025 for violations that happened after November 2, 2015, and they are still the current figures in 2026: the Justice Department announced on July 15, 2026 that its penalties will not increase for the 2026 calendar year, and the eCFR text still shows the 2025 amounts. The statute itself still prints the original paperwork range, “not less than $100 and not more than $1,000 for each individual” (8 U.S.C. 1324a(e)(5)); the annual inflation adjustments are what carry it to $288 and $2,861.
ICE uses the date it serves the Notice of Intent to Fine as the assessment date, and that date picks the range. A violation from 2019 assessed today is fined on today's table, not on the 2019 one.
ICE fact sheet, Form I-9 Inspection (updated 08/31/2026)
Criminal exposure sits on top of all this, but only for a pattern or practice of knowing hires: a fine of up to $3,000 for each unauthorized worker, up to six months in prison for the whole pattern, or both (8 CFR 274a.10(a)). An honest employer with untidy forms is in the civil rows, and that is where this guide spends its time.
What to do
- Count your exposure per form: forms on file times the paperwork range is the ceiling you are managing.
- Any figure lower than $288 per form that you see quoted comes from an older table. The current range is $288 to $2,861.
- Start with the forms you are most likely to be missing: run the Form I-9 audit checklist against your current staff list.
Technical failures against substantive violations
Substantive violations
- No Form I-9 for a worker
- Forms not produced for the inspection
- Section 1 or Section 2 completed late
- Section 2 documents not examined or not recorded
- Section 1 or Section 2 left unsigned or undated
- Supplement B not done by the expiration date
ICE: fined for all substantive violations
Technical or procedural failures
- An outdated version of the form
- Other last names or physical address missing in Section 1
- Business name or address missing in Section 2
- Employee name missing at the top of a page or supplement
- Wrong Social Security number for an E-Verify case
At least 10 business days to correct
ICE sorts paperwork problems into two piles, and the pile decides whether you get a chance to fix the form before a fine is on the table. A substantive violation goes to the heart of the verification: no form, a late Section 2, documents never looked at. A technical or procedural failure is a gap that does not undo the verification itself, such as a missing business address. The cards above list examples from ICE's own inspection fact sheet; it is not the full list.
Lateness alone is substantive. Section 2 is due within three business days after the first day of work (start Monday, finish by Thursday), and a form completed later than that is late even if everything on it is right. The I-9 deadline calculator gives the date for any start day.
“a person or entity is considered to have complied with a requirement of this subsection notwithstanding a technical or procedural failure to meet such requirement if there was a good faith attempt to comply with the requirement.”
The defense is lost if the government explains the failure, gives you at least 10 business days to correct it, and you do not. It never helps an employer engaged in a pattern or practice of knowing hires.
8 U.S.C. § 1324a(b)(6)(A)–(C)
A Notice of Technical or Procedural Failures gives you at least ten business days to correct the forms. When the period ends, every uncorrected failure becomes a substantive violation and can be fined.
ICE fact sheet; 8 U.S.C. § 1324a(b)(6)(B)
What to do
- When a Notice of Technical or Procedural Failures arrives, put the correction deadline on the calendar that day.
- Correct forms the approved way: a line through the error, the right entry, initials and date, and a short note. Never backdate.
- Fix what you can before anyone asks. An internal audit is not required by law, but it turns fines into corrections.
The five factors ICE weighs
| Factor | Aggravating | Mitigating | Neutral |
|---|---|---|---|
| Size of the business | +5% | -5% | 0% |
| Good faith of the employer | +5% | -5% | 0% |
| Seriousness of the violation | +5% | -5% | 0% |
| Whether an unauthorized worker was involved | +5% | -5% | 0% |
| History of previous violations | +5% | -5% | 0% |
| Most the factors can move the base fine | +25% | -25% | 0% |
The statute names the factors and the regulation repeats them. In the words of 8 U.S.C. 1324a(e)(5): “due consideration shall be given to the size of the business of the employer being charged, the good faith of the employer, the seriousness of the violation, whether or not the individual was an unauthorized alien, and the history of previous violations.”
ICE turns that sentence into arithmetic. It first works out a violation percentage: the paperwork violations (substantive ones plus uncorrected technical ones) divided by the number of forms that should have been presented. That percentage sets a base fine within the legal range, and a higher share of bad forms means a higher base. Each of the five factors then moves the base by 5% up, 5% down or not at all, so the total swing is 25% either way. Knowing-hire violations get their own violation percentage, calculated separately.
For a small employer the size factor usually helps, and the good-faith factor is the one you control. Records that show you trained the person who completes Section 2, checked forms on a schedule and fixed errors when you found them are the kind of record that supports a good-faith argument.
What to do
- Keep proof of good faith: who completes forms, when you last audited, what you corrected.
- Fewer bad forms means a lower base fine. A clean self-audit lowers the violation percentage before anyone calculates it.
Knowing hire and continuing to employ
The higher rows of the penalty table apply when an employer knowingly hires someone who is not authorized to work, or keeps employing someone after learning they are not authorized. The fines are per unauthorized worker and climb by offense: $716 to $5,724 for a first offense, $5,724 to $14,308 for a second, and $8,586 to $28,619 for a third or later one.
“a finding of more than one violation in the course of a single proceeding or determination will be counted as a single offense. However, a single offense will include penalties for each unauthorized alien who is determined to have been knowingly hired”. Ten violations found in one inspection are a first offense, fined ten times.
8 CFR 274a.10(b)
“Continuing to employ” is the trap for honest employers. If an inspection ends with a Notice of Suspect Documents and you keep the named employees on the payroll without them showing valid work authorization, ICE's fact sheet warns of the civil and criminal penalties that follow. An employer found to have knowingly hired or continued to employ unauthorized workers may also face debarment from federal contracts (48 CFR 9.406-2(b)(2)), and a pattern or practice of knowing hires is a crime.
Pattern or practice of knowing hires: a fine of not more than $3,000 for each unauthorized worker, imprisonment of not more than six months for the entire pattern or practice, or both.
8 CFR 274a.10(a)
What to do
- Treat a Notice of Suspect Documents as a deadline, not a letter to file. Talk to the named employees the same week.
- Give employees the chance ICE describes to show valid work authorization, and keep a record of what each one presented.
- If you use E-Verify, never act on a mismatch alone; follow the tentative nonconfirmation steps.
How a Form I-9 inspection unfolds
- 01
Notice of Inspection served
At least 3 business days to produce the forms, 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(2)(ii)
- 02
Forms and supporting records handed over
ICE often asks for payroll and an employee list, ICE fact sheet
- 03
Forms inspected; notices issued as needed
Suspect Documents, Discrepancies, Technical or Procedural Failures, ICE fact sheet
- 04
Technical failures corrected
At least 10 business days, 8 U.S.C. 1324a(b)(6)(B)
- 05
Result letter
Compliance letter, Warning Notice or Notice of Intent to Fine, ICE fact sheet
- 06
Hearing request, if you contest a fine
Within 30 days of service (35 if mailed), 8 CFR 274a.9(e)–(f)
ICE describes the administrative inspection as starting on paper: Homeland Security Investigations serves a Notice of Inspection and the clock starts: the regulation guarantees “at least three business days notice prior to an inspection of Forms I-9.” Three business days is not long if forms sit in a dozen personnel files or on a former vendor's system, so keep them where you can pull them in one sitting.
At least three business days after the Notice of Inspection to produce the forms. Off-site and electronic forms must be retrievable within that time.
8 CFR 274a.2(b)(2)(ii)
After the review, the outcome is one of three letters. A compliance letter closes the file. A Warning Notice records substantive violations with an expectation of future compliance; ICE says it will not use one if you already had a Warning Notice or a fine, ignored a technical-failure correction period, or there is evidence of fraud such as backdating. Everything else gets a Notice of Intent to Fine, which states the charges and the amount.
A written request for a hearing before an administrative law judge must reach the office named in the Notice of Intent to Fine within 30 days of service, or 35 days if it was served by ordinary mail. Miss it and the order becomes final with no appeal.
8 CFR 274a.9(d)–(f); 8 U.S.C. 1324a(e)(3)
A timely hearing request also opens the door to settlement: ICE says you may negotiate the charges or the fine before it files a complaint with the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer. Inspections cover former employees too, for as long as their forms must be kept: three years after the hire date or one year after their last day, whichever comes later. The I-9 retention calculator tells you which forms are still in scope.
What to do
- Name one person who receives a Notice of Inspection and knows where every form is.
- Keep forms together and separate from personnel files so three business days is enough.
- Diary 30 days from the date a Notice of Intent to Fine is served, and call counsel well before it.
Document abuse: the penalty for asking too much
The other way to be fined over Form I-9 runs in the opposite direction: being too strict. The Justice Department's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) enforces the anti-discrimination side of the same law, and the verification step itself is where an employer can cross it.
“request, for purposes of satisfying the requirements of section 1324a(b) of this title, for more or different documents than are required under such section or refusing to honor documents tendered that on their face reasonably appear to be genuine shall be treated as an unfair immigration-related employment practice if made for the purpose or with the intent of discriminating”
8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(6)
| Unfair immigration-related practice | Minimum | Maximum | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair documentary practice (document abuse) | $236 | $2,364 | 28 CFR 68.52(d)(1)(xii) |
| Citizenship or national-origin discrimination, first order | $590 | $4,730 | 28 CFR 68.52(d)(1)(viii) |
| Citizenship or national-origin discrimination, second order | $4,730 | $11,823 | 28 CFR 68.52(d)(1)(ix) |
| Citizenship or national-origin discrimination, later orders | $7,093 | $23,647 | 28 CFR 68.52(d)(1)(x) |
In practice this means, for example, asking a lawful permanent resident for a Green Card when they offered a driver's license and a Social Security card. The employee chooses which acceptable documents to present. The I-9 document checker shows which combinations satisfy Section 2 so whoever completes it does not ask for more.
What to do
- Never ask for a specific document. Hand over the Lists of Acceptable Documents and let the employee choose.
- Accept a document that reasonably appears genuine on its face and relates to the person presenting it.
Cutting your exposure before an inspection
Every row of the penalty table is cheaper to prevent than to contest. For a 5 to 200 person employer the work is short and repeatable: get each new form right inside its deadline, keep the forms you must keep and no others, and check the file once a year.
- Complete Section 2 within three business days after the first day of work, every time. The Form I-9 employer guide walks through each section.
- Audit your forms, all of them or a sample picked on neutral criteria. No law requires an internal audit, and penalties can still follow one, but a form fixed now is not a violation found later. Use the audit checklist.
- Correct errors with a line through, the right entry, initials and date, plus a short note. Never backdate and never use correction fluid.
- Keep every form for as long as the rule requires and give each a destroy date: three years after hire or one year after the last day, whichever is later. The retention calculator gives each one's date.
- Consider electronic I-9 software that enforces deadlines and keeps an audit trail; our comparison of the best I-9 software lists what each tool does.
An outside auditor or vendor does not take on your liability. ICE and IER guidance says an employer remains liable for any violations a third party commits on its behalf.
- Paperwork violation
- $288 to $2,861 per form8 CFR 274a.10(b)(2)
- Knowing hire, first offense
- $716 to $5,724 per worker8 CFR 274a.10(b)(1)(ii)(A)
- Knowing hire, third or later
- $8,586 to $28,619 per worker8 CFR 274a.10(b)(1)(ii)(C)
- Document abuse
- $236 to $2,364 per person28 CFR 68.52(d)(1)(xii)
- Notice before an inspection
- At least 3 business days8 CFR 274a.2(b)(2)(ii)
- Time to fix technical failures
- At least 10 business days8 U.S.C. 1324a(b)(6)(B)
- Hearing request after a fine notice
- 30 days (35 if mailed)8 CFR 274a.9(e)
- Factors ICE weighs
- 5, each +/-5%8 U.S.C. 1324a(e)(5); ICE fact sheet
Questions employers ask
How much is the fine for a Form I-9 violation?
A paperwork violation costs $288 to $2,861 per form. Knowingly hiring or keeping an unauthorized worker costs $716 to $5,724 per worker for a first offense, rising to $8,586 to $28,619 per worker for a third or later offense.
Are I-9 fines per employee or per inspection?
Per individual. The paperwork penalty is set for each person whose form has a violation, so the total grows with every bad form.
Can I be fined over the I-9 of a U.S. citizen?
Yes. Every new hire needs a Form I-9, citizen or not, and a missing or late form is a paperwork violation either way. Whether the person was unauthorized is one of the five factors, so an authorized worker's form tends to sit lower in the range.
Did I-9 penalties go up in 2026?
No. The 2025 inflation-adjusted amounts still apply. The Justice Department said its penalties will not increase for the 2026 calendar year, and the eCFR still shows the 2025 figures.
Will I get a warning instead of a fine?
Possibly, for a first inspection with substantive violations and an expectation of future compliance. ICE says it will not issue a Warning Notice if you already had one or a fine, failed to correct technical failures in the period given, or there is evidence of fraud such as backdating.
Can I fix old forms before an inspection?
Yes, and you should. Draw a line through the error, write the right entry, initial and date it, and attach a short note. Never backdate: enter today's date beside a late entry. Our Form I-9 guide covers each section.