Immigration Compliance and the Hiring Process

Legally Reviewed by Boyd Hoekel on July 30, 2026

Every employer in the United States, regardless of size or industry, has legal obligations around verifying who they hire. Those obligations come from a stack of federal statutes built up over nearly four decades, and getting the details wrong, whether by doing too little or by overcorrecting, can expose a business to real regulatory risk.

At Quadros, Migl & Kilmer, we help Texas businesses build hiring and regulatory compliance practices that satisfy federal verification requirements without drifting into practices that create separate liability. Our team of attorneys works with employers to review existing intake processes, correct gaps before they become findings, and train staff who handle onboarding paperwork.

The Legal Framework Governing Employment Eligibility Verification

Employer hiring obligations rest on several overlapping federal laws. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) establishes the baseline framework for lawful employment eligibility. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) introduced the requirement that employers verify identity and work authorization for every new hire. The Immigration Act of 1990 refined several of those verification standards, and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996 added further enforcement mechanisms. Together, these statutes define both what employers must do and what they are prohibited from doing during the hiring process.

What Employers Must Do to Stay Compliant

Compliance under this framework comes down to two core obligations that apply to nearly every hire.

• Verify the identity and employment authorization of each person hired after Nov. 6, 1986. For employment in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), this verification requirement applies to persons hired after Nov. 27, 2009.
• Complete and retain Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, for each employee who is required to complete the form.

In practice, this means Section 1 of Form I-9 must be completed by the employee no later than their first day of work, and Section 2 must be completed by the employer within three business days of the employee’s start date. Employers must retain each I-9 for either three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever date is later, and the forms should be stored separately from general personnel files so they can be produced quickly if requested during a government inspection.

E-Verify: Not Federally Mandated for Most Texas Employers, But Increasingly Common

E-Verify is a federal electronic system that compares Form I-9 information against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records. Texas does not generally require private employers to use E-Verify, though certain state contractors and specific categories of employers may have separate obligations. Even where it is not required, many employers choose to enroll voluntarily as an added layer of documentation, and businesses considering it should understand both the enrollment obligations and the recordkeeping that comes with it before opting in.

Practices Employers Must Avoid

Civil or criminal penalties may apply if an employer engages in any of the following during the hiring process:

• Discriminating against individuals because of national origin, citizenship, or immigration status.
• Requesting more or different documents than are required to verify employment eligibility, rejecting reasonably genuine-looking documents, or specifying certain documents over others.
• Retaliating against or intimidating individuals because they filed charges with the Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER), cooperated with an IER investigation, contested action that may constitute unfair documentary practices or discrimination, or asserted their rights under the INA’s anti-discrimination provision.
• Hiring, recruiting for a fee, or referring for a fee individuals the employer knows are not authorized to work in the United States.

The document-related prohibitions catch many well-intentioned employers off guard. Asking for a specific document, such as insisting on a Social Security card when an employee has already presented a valid alternative from the Form I-9 list of acceptable documents, can itself constitute an unfair documentary practice even though the employer’s intent was simply to verify eligibility carefully.

Common I-9 Mistakes That Create Exposure

Most compliance problems we see are not intentional violations. They are process failures that accumulate over time.

• Missed deadlines: Completing Section 2 later than three business days after the start date, or having employees complete Section 1 after their first day.
• Missing reverification: Failing to reverify employment authorization before a document with a listed expiration date lapses.
• Over-documentation: Requesting additional documents beyond what the employee chooses to present from the acceptable lists.
• Inconsistent storage: Keeping I-9 forms mixed in with general personnel files rather than in a separate, organized system that can be produced quickly.

Each of these issues is straightforward to correct once identified, which is why a periodic internal review of I-9 practices tends to be far less disruptive than discovering the same issues during a government inspection.

Building an Internal I-9 Compliance Program

Employers who avoid the most common pitfalls typically share a few practices in common. They designate a small number of trained staff to handle Form I-9 completion rather than leaving it to whoever happens to be onboarding an employee that day. They conduct periodic self-audits of existing I-9 files to catch missing signatures, expired reverification dates, or incomplete sections before they become a pattern. They also document their remote hire verification procedures in writing, since verification requirements for employees who do not report to a physical location have specific procedural rules of their own.

These practices work best as part of a broader employment law compliance strategy rather than a standalone checklist, since hiring verification rules often intersect with wage, classification, and personnel record requirements. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also maintains detailed guidance on proper Form I-9 completion through its I-9 Central resource, which is a useful reference point for HR staff handling day-to-day verification.

Frequently Asked Questions About Immigration Compliance in Hiring

Work With Quadros, Migl & Kilmer on Hiring Compliance

If your business has questions or concerns related to immigration compliance and the hiring process, the experienced attorneys at Quadros, Migl & Kilmer are here to help. We work with employers across industries to build onboarding practices that satisfy federal requirements while avoiding the documentary and anti-discrimination pitfalls that trip up well-intentioned businesses.

Our attorneys can also review your existing I-9 files and hiring procedures before a government inspection ever happens. Please reach out through our contact form to set up your initial consultation.