Free guide for PEO leaders
The PEO I-9 Readiness Guide
What worksite enforcement at 2026 volume means for the way you run I-9s across a client book. Practical, not legal. Six pages, and you can act on it this week.
What is inside
- What changed, in numbers. Audit volume, the three-day production window, and current penalty ranges, with the regulation cited.
- Why one process across many clients behaves differently. Where I-9 workflows break when a single team runs them at scale.
- The three-day exercise. A stress test you can run on your own operation without involving anyone outside your team. Most organizations do not pass it the first time.
- The step the process usually skips. Confirming the person, as distinct from confirming the documents, and what that means once hiring went remote.
- A readiness checklist. Fifteen items across inventory, process, records, identity, and response.
- Seven questions to ask your I-9 platform. The last one catches more than the other six combined.
Written by Janice Kephart, founder of ZipID and of Identity Strategy Partners. Border Counsel to the 9/11 Commission, author of the REAL ID Act and the federal identity theft statute, 19 congressional testimonies.
ZipID is a technology company, not a law firm. This guide is operational and informational, is not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Questions about how I-9 responsibility is allocated between a PEO and its clients depend on your own contracts and should go to your counsel.