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What Is the Issuing Authority on a U.S. Passport for Form I-9?
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I-9 penalty amounts did not increase in 2026. The fine ranges set by the Department of Homeland Security in the January 2, 2025 Federal Register adjustment remain in effect through the 2026 calendar year. Paperwork errors still run $288 to $2,861 per form; knowing-hire violations reach $28,619 per worker at the third-offense tier.
That flat outcome is a policy story, not an accident. Multiple federal agencies (DOJ, SEC, FCC, and others) published 2026 notices confirming their civil monetary penalty amounts will not increase this year, citing Office of Management and Budget guidance. DHS did not issue a 2026 adjustment either. What follows: the current in-force amounts, why the annual-increase pattern broke, and why "no increase" still means higher exposure in a year when ICE is auditing at roughly 10x the prior rate.
The table below shows every I-9-related civil penalty range in effect through 2026. All figures come from the January 2, 2025 Federal Register adjustment; no 2026 update was published by DHS.
| Violation Type | Range (per violation) | 2026 Status |
|---|---|---|
| Paperwork violations Form I-9 errors, omissions, missing forms |
$288 – $2,861 per form | Unchanged from 2025 |
| Knowing hire, 1st offense Knowingly hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized workers |
$716 – $5,724 per worker | Unchanged from 2025 |
| Knowing hire, 2nd offense | $5,724 – $14,308 per worker | Unchanged from 2025 |
| Knowing hire, 3rd or subsequent offense | $8,586 – $28,619 per worker | Unchanged from 2025 |
| Document abuse Requiring specific documents, rejecting valid documents, disparate treatment |
$288 – $2,861 per violation | Unchanged from 2025 |
| Document fraud Preparing or using fraudulent documents |
$590 – $11,823 per violation | Unchanged from 2025 |
How these amounts apply matters as much as the numbers themselves. Paperwork violations are assessed per form, so 50 I-9s with errors compounds to $14,400 to $143,050 in exposure. Knowing-hire penalties are per worker, and they stack on top of paperwork fines. For a full breakdown with examples and calculation walk-throughs, see our complete I-9 penalties reference.
Under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, federal agencies are generally required to adjust their civil monetary penalty amounts every January based on the Consumer Price Index. This is why HR teams typically see fresh dollar figures each year in early Q1.
2026 broke that pattern. In the summer of 2026, the Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies not to publish an inflation adjustment for the 2026 calendar year. Multiple agencies then filed Federal Register notices formalizing that outcome:
DHS did not publish an annual civil monetary penalty adjustment in 2026. The January 2, 2025 amounts remain the current in-force amounts under 8 C.F.R. § 274a.10.
Practically, this means an HR team looking up I-9 penalty figures in mid- or late-2026 should still reference the 2025 amounts as current. Any "2026 penalty amounts" different from the numbers in the table above are likely wrong. That figure either extrapolates an expected inflation increase that didn't happen, or reads commentary written before the pause was confirmed.
Flat penalty amounts are the good news. Everything else about the 2026 enforcement climate makes those amounts hurt more, not less. Four factors drive that shift.
First, ICE is issuing I-9 audit Notices of Inspection at roughly ten times the prior year's rate. More employers are getting audited than at any point in the last decade. Second, about 12,000 new enforcement officers are onboarding to expand worksite capacity. Third, an ICE-IRS memorandum of understanding gave the agency access to approximately 1.28 million flagged employer tax records, so audit targeting is data-driven rather than random.
Fourth, and most consequential for HR teams: the March 2026 ICE Fact Sheet reclassified several common I-9 errors from technical (correctable within 10 business days) to substantive (immediate fines). Missing dates, preparer/translator errors, and electronic-system standard failures all moved into the substantive category. Full breakdown: ICE Redefines Substantive I-9 Violations.
So the math is worse than the flat penalty amounts suggest. Same dollar range per violation, but far more citations per audit, more audits overall, and fewer errors that qualify for the 10-day cure window. Total expected exposure is up sharply even though the top-line figures held flat.
These fines add up fast. Use our free I-9 Risk Calculator for a 60-second estimate of your potential exposure. Or schedule a professional I-9 audit with our team and get the gaps fixed before ICE finds them.
Given the enforcement climate, HR teams should not wait for penalty relief. The better move is to systematically reduce error rates on existing I-9s.
Pull a representative sample of current-employee I-9s and review each against the current form (Edition 01/20/25). Common substantive errors under the new ICE guidance include missing dates on Section 1 or Section 2, missing employer title, incomplete preparer/translator information, and electronic-system standards failures. Full step-by-step process: I-9 Self-Audit Playbook.
After the August 1, 2026 transition, only the 01/20/25 edition of Form I-9 is acceptable for new hires. Complete a test I-9 in your HRIS or electronic I-9 system and confirm the generated form reads "Edition 01/20/25" in the bottom-left corner and shows 05/31/2027 as the expiration date. Vendor form updates are a common failure point after every I-9 transition. Detail: how to verify you're using the current Form I-9 edition.
Line-level HR staff need to know that "we'll fix it later" is no longer a viable posture for a broader set of errors. Any staffer completing Section 2 should be able to identify what makes an I-9 substantively vs. technically deficient under the March 2026 guidance.
The alternative examination procedure (live video) is available only to E-Verify participants in good standing. Employers using remote verification without meeting the E-Verify requirement now face a substantive violation under the March 2026 guidance. The "Alternative Procedure" box on Section 2 must be checked, and E-Verify participation must be active at the time of examination. See how we handle remote Section 2 as a managed service.
"A flat penalty year is not the news most HR teams should relax about," says Patricia Duarte, Director of Compliance at i9 Intelligence. "The audits we're seeing in 2026 are landing on companies whose I-9s were quietly deficient for years. Fine amounts held steady from last year. What changed is how likely an inspector is to find those errors, and how many of those errors now sit in the substantive column."
No. DHS did not publish a 2026 civil monetary penalty inflation adjustment, and the amounts set in the January 2, 2025 Federal Register adjustment remain in effect. Paperwork violations are $288 to $2,861 per form; knowing-hire violations are $716 to $28,619 per worker depending on offense count.
The Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies not to publish the standard annual inflation adjustment for 2026. Multiple agencies (DOJ, SEC, FCC, NEA) filed public notices formalizing the pause. DHS did not issue a 2026 adjustment either, which leaves the January 2025 amounts as current through the calendar year.
Paperwork violations: $288 to $2,861 per Form I-9. Knowing hire: $716 to $5,724 (first offense), $5,724 to $14,308 (second), $8,586 to $28,619 (third or subsequent) per unauthorized worker. Document abuse: $288 to $2,861 per violation. Document fraud: $590 to $11,823 per violation.
Notices of Inspection are triggered by employee tips, agency data-sharing (including the ICE-IRS memorandum giving ICE access to flagged employer tax records), targeted enforcement of specific industries or regions, and, less often, random enforcement actions. Common red flags include missing or incomplete I-9s, inconsistent completion procedures across locations, and use of outdated form editions.
Three business days from receipt to produce the requested I-9 forms. Companies with electronic I-9 systems and clean records typically respond in hours; companies with paper files or missing forms face weeks of scrambling and higher exposure. For what happens next, see our guide to what happens during an ICE I-9 audit.
Yes. And more categories of errors now qualify. Under the March 2026 ICE Fact Sheet, several errors that used to be treated as technical (with a 10-business-day cure window) are now substantive, meaning immediate fines. Missing dates on Section 1 or Section 2, missing employer title, and preparer/translator errors all sit in the substantive category as of March 2026.
The steps that matter most: run a self-audit against the current form edition, confirm your electronic system generates the 01/20/25 edition, train HR staff on the current substantive-violation categories, retain document copies for E-Verify and remote-verified I-9s, and keep completed I-9s in a searchable electronic system so audit response is measured in hours rather than weeks.
E-Verify is not federally mandated except for federal contractors and certain state-level requirements. However, E-Verify participation IS required to use the remote (alternative) Section 2 examination procedure. Active E-Verify participation also demonstrates good-faith effort and can meaningfully reduce audit exposure. See our list of state E-Verify requirements.
Repeat offenders face escalating penalty tiers: knowing-hire violations move from $716 – $5,724 (first offense) to $5,724 – $14,308 (second) to $8,586 – $28,619 (third or subsequent) per worker. Severe or systemic violations can also trigger criminal referrals and, for federal contractors, loss of contracting eligibility.
Our team of I-9 and E-Verify experts is here to help: