For nearly 30 years, employers completing Form I-9s operated under a forgiving framework: make a minor administrative mistake, like a missing date, an omitted title, and you had 10 days to fix it without penalty. That safety net just got a lot smaller. Without a formal announcement or rulemaking process, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) recently posted updated guidance that reclassifies many common administrative errors as “substantive” violations subject to immediate fines. The practical effect is significant: errors that used to be correctable now carry per-violation penalties ranging from $288 to $2,861, and they add up fast.
Here’s what changed, why it matters, and what employers should be doing about it.
Since 1997, ICE and employers relied on a memo authored by Paul Virtue, then a senior attorney at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, that drew a clear line between “technical” and “substantive” I-9 errors. Substantive errors went to the heart of the form’s purpose—verifying identity and work authorization. Technical errors were minor administrative oversights: a missing date, a blank field, an incomplete entry. Under the Virtue Memo, employers who received a Notice of Inspection had a 10-day cure period to correct technical mistakes without facing fines. The memo also allowed room for good faith efforts to correct common mistakes and avoid penalties.
On March 16, 2026, ICE updated its Form...
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