ICE Revised Its I-9 Inspection Fact Sheet Again. Here's What Changed on August 31.

On August 31, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted a revised version of its Form I-9 Inspection fact sheet, the document that tells employers how Homeland Security Investigations runs an I-9 audit and prices the fines. It's the second revision this year. ICE didn't announce it, didn't publish it in the Federal Register, and didn't post a list of what changed, so most employers are hearing about it a month late from law-firm alerts.

The August version adds no new substantive violations, and everything ICE reclassified in March still draws an immediate fine. The changes are about how the audit runs. Electronic I-9s now need a compliant audit trail, ICE has a new notice for workers who lose work authorization during the audit, warning notices are closed to repeat and uncorrected cases, fines get calculated by category, and a hearing request has to reach ICE inside 30 days. The new notice carries the most money, because it can turn a paperwork audit into a knowing-hire case at up to $28,619 per worker, ten times the paperwork maximum. For the March reclassification itself, start with how ICE redefined substantive I-9 violations.

What changed between the March and August fact sheets

We compared the March 16, 2026 text against the version ICE stamped August 31, 2026. These are the six changes that affect employers, quoted from the two versions.

The list of substantive violations and technical failures reads the same in both versions, so no error moved from one column to the other in August.

The new mid-audit notice is where the real money is

ICE can now issue a Notice of Expired or Rescinded Immigration Status and/or Employment Authorization during an inspection. In ICE's words, it "informs the employer that certain employees currently do not have authorization to work" and "does not allege wrongdoing; only that employees have lost work authorization between the date of the audit and the Notice."

On the day it arrives the notice accuses you of nothing, but from then on it's a written record that you were told. The same fact sheet says employers found to have knowingly continued to employ unauthorized workers "must immediately cease the unlawful activity."

Knowingly continuing to employ is priced per worker, from $716 on a first offense up to $28,619 on a third, while the worst paperwork violation tops out at $2,861. Paperwork fines are what most employers budget for. Keep a handful of workers on payroll after ICE has told you in writing that their authorization is gone, and the exposure moves into a different bracket, with possible criminal charges and federal-contract debarment on top.

The fact sheet doesn't spell out the next step. We'd handle it the way USCIS tells E-Verify employers to handle the Status Change Report. Reverify the employee in Supplement B, let them choose any unexpired List A or List C document, and don't ask for more or different documents than Form I-9 requires.

E-Verify employers can often see these cases before ICE does. The Status Change Report now lists invalidated Employment Authorization Documents in categories A12, C08, C09, C11, and C19, and USCIS updates it every two weeks.

Audit trails now sit in ICE's opening paragraph

The rule behind this change dates back years. The electronic I-9 regulation at 8 CFR 274a.2(e)–(i) already requires a system to hand over each requested Form I-9 "along with associated audit trails," and it defines an audit trail as "a record showing who has accessed a computer system and the actions performed within or on the computer system during a given period of time." The March fact sheet already listed a failure to meet those electronic standards as a substantive violation.

August moves the audit trail into the fact sheet's first paragraph, in the sentence describing what every employer has to keep. A gap in an audit trail lives in the software, so it shows up on every form that software produced. ICE can count each of those forms as a paperwork violation at $288 to $2,861 apiece, which is how a single setup problem turns into a fine sized by your headcount.

The joint DOJ and ICE guidance on I-9 software from December 2023 describes what a compliant trail looks like. The program has to uniquely identify each person who accesses, corrects, or changes a Form I-9, and no change can go undocumented. Auditors ask about Section 2 corrections that overwrite the old value with no history.

Want a second set of eyes before ICE asks?

Pull one electronic I-9 and its audit trail, then walk through it with our compliance team. We'll show you what an auditor expects to find in that export and where we usually see gaps after 28 years of reviewing I-9s. Book a free compliance call or start with an I-9 audit.

Warning notices went from "should not" to "will not"

A Warning Notice is ICE's no-fine outcome, and it goes to an employer with substantive violations when ICE expects future compliance. Both versions list the cases where a warning is off the table. The employer previously got a Warning Notice or a Notice of Intent to Fine, failed to fix technical or procedural failures within the 10 business days, failed to prepare or present I-9s, or shows evidence of fraud such as backdating.

In March, ICE said a warning "should not" issue in those cases. In August, it says a warning "will not" issue, which takes the call away from the auditor. An employer with any prior Warning Notice or fine should plan for the next inspection to end in a Notice of Intent to Fine. And when a Notice of Technical or Procedural Failures arrives, the 10-business-day correction window decides more than the technical errors. Miss it and the warning is gone too.

Fines are now calculated by category

The March text divided all violations, paperwork and knowing-hire together, by the number of I-9s that should have been presented. August computes one percentage for substantive and uncorrected technical violations and a separate one for knowingly hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized workers. Each percentage sets its own base fine, and ICE then applies the five statutory factors (business size, good faith, seriousness, unauthorized workers involved, and history), each worth up to 5% in either direction.

The dollar ranges are the same as before August, because DHS hasn't published an adjustment since the one that took effect January 2, 2025. Knowing-hire fines climb with each offense and run up to ten times the paperwork ceiling.

Source is the January 2, 2025 DHS inflation adjustment. Our 2026 I-9 penalty guide walks through the full table.

Hearing requests have to arrive within 30 days

An employer who gets a Notice of Intent to Fine can ask for a hearing before the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO). March said that request "must be made" within 30 calendar days of receiving the notice. August says it "must be received by ICE" within 30 calendar days, so a request mailed on day 29 can now be late.

The consequence is spelled out in the fact sheet. If ICE doesn't receive a timely request, it issues a Final Order, and "There is no appeal from a Final Order." A few early summaries of the August change described a late request as still leaving room to appeal. ICE's text says otherwise. Count from the day the notice arrived and send the request with tracking well before day 30.

What to do this month

1. Export one electronic I-9 with its audit trail. Check that it names each person who opened, signed, or changed the form, and that corrections show the old value next to the new one.
2. If you use E-Verify, put the Status Change Report on a schedule and reverify anyone it lists in Supplement B.
3. Check your file for a prior Warning Notice or Notice of Intent to Fine. If either exists, plan as if the next audit ends in a fine.
4. Decide now who receives a Notice of Intent to Fine, who sends the hearing request, and how it gets to ICE inside 30 days.
5. Save a dated copy of the fact sheet. ICE has changed it twice this year without saying so.

For the full audit sequence from Notice of Inspection to final order, see what happens during an ICE I-9 audit.

Questions about the August changes?

Call (713) 668-6200 (Mon–Fri, 8 AM – 5 PM CT), email support@i-9intelligence.com, or submit a ticket.