Correcting I-9's

Correcting I-9’s. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Filling out the I-9 forms can be a bit tricky and if the forms are not filled out correctly your operation could open itself up to possible fines. Dan Fazio with Washington Farm Labor Association says you can correct mistakes.

FAZIO: The law allows you to correct most of the I-9 mistakes and we do a lot of that but unfortunately if you don’t complete an I-9 within 3 days of the worker coming on board and you may get a small fine for not doing it within the 3 days of hiring the person but it’s a lot better than not having an I-9 for the person.

Fazio has been traveling around the state working with farmers to do an audit of their I-9 forms.

FAZIO: In terms of the toughest problems I’ve seen this summer it’s have to be where the worker shows up this year and gives you one birthdate or one social security number and last year they gave you a different birthdate or different social security number or different green card number. And of course you don’t notice it until you sit down and you’re comparing the two I-9’s you have.

There is some good information available.

FAZIO: There’s a pretty good government website, I-9 Central where you can go and get your questions answered and they do respond. If people want to find out more about our audit program they can just call me, 360-455-8064 or go to our website and it’s just wafla.org and they just leave a message or ask us questions

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.