HR I-9 Compliance Cohort

Live 5-session I-9 compliance training for HR professionals. Designed for 5.0 SHRM PDCs and HRCI credits via self-submission.

Next Cohort Launches: June 23, 2026. Save your spot now, seats are limited.

Enrollment for June 23 is OPEN!
Enrollment for June 23 is OPEN!

The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort: Live Training for HR Professionals (2026)

Five sessions of instructional education. Designed for 5.0 SHRM PDCs and HRCI recertification credits via self-submission. Taught by a former ICE attorney who specialized in worksite enforcement litigation for nearly a decade.

Founding cohort starts Tuesday, June 23, 2026. Capped at 15 seats.

The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort is a five-session live virtual training program for HR professionals responsible for Form I-9 employment eligibility verification and E-Verify compliance. Each 60-minute session is taught by Emily C. Brown, Esq., a Florida and DC-licensed immigration attorney with prior service at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The cohort is designed to align with the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge (BASK) and HRCI Exam Content Outlines, making it eligible for 5.0 SHRM Professional Development Credits (PDCs) and 5.0 HRCI General HR recertification credits via participant self-submission.

Who This I-9 Compliance Training Is For

This cohort is built for HR professionals who carry direct or supervisory responsibility for I-9 compliance — and who are tired of generic compliance training that stops at "complete the form on time."

You will benefit from this program if you are:

  • A SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, aPHR, PHRca, or GPHR credential holder needing recertification credits in 2026 or 2027

  • An HR Director, HR Manager, or HR Generalist completing I-9s for new hires

  • A compliance officer or operations leader reviewing employer I-9 procedures

  • A small business owner who personally completes I-9s and needs to know your real legal exposure

  • An HR consultant advising client employers on Form I-9 and E-Verify compliance

  • Anyone whose state recently passed a mandatory E-Verify law (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, Ohio, and others)

If you have ever wondered whether your I-9 process would survive an ICE Notice of Inspection, this cohort was built for you.

What Makes This I-9 Training Different from Other HR Courses

Most I-9 compliance training is taught by HR consultants who learned the rules from a textbook. This cohort is taught by an attorney who litigated immigration compliance matters at DOL and specialized in federal litigation ICE. You learn the law the way the federal government actually applies it — not the way a generic compliance vendor summarizes it.

The four key differences:

1. Taught by former federal counsel, not a generalist HR trainer. Emily C. Brown, Esq. served at ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (District Court Litigation Division) and at DOL's Office of the Solicitor (Employment and Training, Immigration Programs).

2. Live attorney Q&A every session. You bring your hardest real-world I-9 questions. You get answers in real time from someone who has actually defended employers in federal worksite enforcement matters.

3. Tools you can use Monday morning. The cohort includes a documents decision tree, a reverification tickler, a TNC response timeline tracker, an NOI first-72-hours checklist, and a quarterly self-audit worksheet. These are the same internal tools the firm uses with paying employer clients.

4. Designed for SHRM and HRCI credit self-submission. Five instructional hours, mapped to the SHRM BASK competency areas of U.S. Employment Law & Regulations, Risk Management, and Talent Acquisition, and to HRCI's Exam Content Outlines for the PHR and SPHR credentials.

What You Learn: The Five I-9 Compliance Sessions

The cohort runs five consecutive Tuesdays from June 23 through July 21, 2026, with a bonus group office hours session on August 18, 2026. All sessions are live via Zoom Webinar at 1:00 PM ET. Recordings are available for 90 days.

Session 1: The I-9 Foundation HR Reps Don't Get Anywhere Else

Tuesday, June 23, 2026 | 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM ET

The statutory and regulatory framework most HR training skips. We cover the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), 8 U.S.C. § 1324a, 8 U.S.C. § 1324b, and 8 C.F.R. Part 274a. You learn where personal HR liability comes from, how the "knowingly hire" standard actually works, and the constructive knowledge doctrine that has cost HR personnel their jobs.

Session 2: Form I-9 Section by Section, the Way ICE Reads It

Tuesday, June 30, 2026 | 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM ET

A field-by-field walkthrough of Form I-9 from the perspective of an ICE auditor reviewing your records. We cover Section 1 timing, attestation rules, the three-business-day rule for Section 2, document examination standards, the "reasonably appears genuine" rule, and the difference between substantive and technical violations under post-2026 enforcement guidance.

Session 3: Reverification, Rehires, and the Receipt Rule

Tuesday, July 7, 2026 | 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM ET

Reverification is the area where HR teams generate the most citizenship status discrimination claims. We cover who you reverify and who you never reverify, automatic EAD extensions and the I-797C receipt rule, the 90-day receipt window, rehire rules within and beyond three years, and how to build suppression logic into your tickler system.

Session 4: E-Verify Done Right (and the TNC Trap)

Tuesday, July 14, 2026 | 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM ET

E-Verify is voluntary federally but mandatory in many states and for most federal contractors. We cover MOU obligations, the federalism layer (Whiting v. Chamber of Commerce and Arizona v. United States), federal contractor mandates under FAR 52.222-54, state E-Verify laws (including Florida's 25-employee threshold under Fla. Stat. § 448.095), the Tentative Nonconfirmation procedure, and the prohibited adverse actions that drive most DOJ-IER discrimination settlements.

Session 5: Self-Audits, NOIs, and Surviving Worksite Enforcement

Tuesday, July 21, 2026 | 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM ET

What HR does in the first 72 hours when ICE arrives — and the years of self-audit work before that determine the outcome. We cover attorney-client privileged self-audits, the difference between an ICE Notice of Inspection, an administrative subpoena, and a judicial warrant, the three-business-day production rule, and how OCAHO penalty mitigation actually works.

Does This Program Qualify for SHRM and HRCI Recertification Credit?

Yes. The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort is designed to align with the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge (SHRM BASK) competency areas of U.S. Employment Law & Regulations, Risk Management, and Talent Acquisition, and with HRCI's Exam Content Outlines for the PHR and SPHR credentials.

How to claim SHRM PDCs for The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort

SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP credential holders are eligible to self-submit attendance for 5.0 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) under SHRM's "Advancing Your Education — Continuing Legal Education" category. SHRM expressly recognizes Continuing Legal Education programming for PDC credit, and there is no PDC maximum in this sub-category.

To self-submit your PDCs after completing the cohort:

  • Log into your SHRM Certification Portal at portal.shrm.org

  • Click "Add PDCs"

  • Choose the "Continuing Education Units & Continuing Legal Education" activity type

  • Enter the program details using the Certificate of Completion we issue you

  • Upload your Certificate of Completion as proof

How to claim HRCI recertification credits for The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort

PHR, SPHR, aPHR, PHRca, and GPHR credential holders are eligible to self-submit attendance for 5.0 HRCI General HR (HR) recertification credits under HRCI's Continuing Education category. HRCI awards one credit hour per instructional hour, calculated to the nearest quarter hour, for HR-related continuing education that ties to the corresponding HRCI Exam Content Outline.

To self-submit your HRCI credits after completing the cohort:

  • Log into your HRCI account at hrci.org

  • Navigate to "Manage Recertification"

  • Click "Add Activity" and select "Continuing Education"

  • Enter the program title, dates, and 5.0 credit hours

  • Upload your Certificate of Completion as documentation

Important note on certification credit eligibility

Elevate Justice is in the process of applying for SHRM Recertification Provider and HRCI Approved Provider status. Until those approvals issue, Cohort 1 attendees self-submit their attendance using the Certificate of Completion we provide. The cohort itself is designed to meet SHRM and HRCI substantive content requirements; participants should retain their Certificate of Completion for at least three years per SHRM and HRCI documentation requirements.

Who Is Teaching The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort?

The cohort is taught by Emily C. Brown, Esq., founder of Elevate Justice U.S. Immigration Law and a Florida- and DC-licensed immigration attorney with nearly a decade of focused practice in I-9 compliance and federal worksite enforcement.

Emily's federal government background is uncommon in the I-9 training market:

  1. Former ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, District Court Litigation Division: federal district court litigation including conditions of confinement, Bivens actions, and Federal Tort Claims Act defense

  2. Former DOL Office of the Solicitor, Employment and Training Legal Services Division, Immigration Programs team: H-2B integrity audit appellate litigation

  3. Nearly ten years of attorney experience concentration in I-9 compliance, federal worksite enforcement defense, and federal immigration litigation including habeas corpus, Administrative Procedure Act, and mandamus actions

This combination of federal enforcement-side and federal regulatory experience, paired with private-practice depth on the employer side, is the credential that makes this cohort substantively different from generic HR compliance training.

What Is Included in The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort?

Your registration includes:

  • 5 live 60-minute instructional sessions followed by Q&A with Attorney on Tuesdays, June 23 through July 21, 2026, at 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM ET

  • 90-day access to all session recordings for review

  • Branded Certificate of Completion documenting program hours, dates, learning objectives, and presenter credentials for SHRM and HRCI self-submission

  • The full cohort resource library, including:

    • HR-Rep M-274 Cheat Sheet (PDF)

    • Documents Decision Tree (PDF flowchart)

    • Reverification Tickler Spreadsheet (Excel)

    • TNC Response Timeline Tracker (Excel)

    • NOI First-72-Hours Checklist (PDF)

    • Quarterly Self-Audit Worksheet (Excel)

How Much Does The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort Cost?

The standard tuition for The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort is $1,497 per participant.

Tuition includes all five live sessions, the bonus office hours session, 90-day recording access, the full resource library, and the Certificate of Completion for SHRM and HRCI self-submission.

Why Are There Only 15 Seats in the Founding Cohort?

The founding cohort is intentionally capped at 15 participants because live attorney Q&A breaks down at scale. The reason this cohort costs more than a free SHRM webinar is that you actually get answers to the questions you bring — and that does not work in a room of 200.

When the 15 seats are filled, registration closes. The next opportunity to enroll is Cohort 2, scheduled for fall 2026 at standard tuition.

HR I-9 Compliance Cohort — Program & Pricing

  • Session 1 — I-9 Foundations & Legal Framework What the law actually requires · common employer mistakes · enforcement landscape
  • Session 2 — Section 1 & Section 2 Completion Employee & employer obligations · acceptable documents · timing rules
  • Session 3 — Remote Verification & E-Verify Authorized representative rules · virtual onboarding compliance · TNC handling
  • Session 4 — Correcting Errors & Internal Audits Remediation procedures · building a good-faith defense · audit-ready recordkeeping
  • Session 5 — ICE Inspections & Worksite Enforcement What happens during an NOI · employer rights · responding without making it worse
Bonus: Live Q&A after each instructional session — bring your real questions, edge cases, and audit scenarios
Program Fee
$1,497
Capped at 15 participants
Begins June 23, 2026
SHRM & HRCI continuing education credit eligible for self-reporting · Virtual · All sessions recorded for registered participants
Enrollment for June 23 is OPEN!
Enrollment for June 23 is OPEN!

Frequently Asked Questions

  • I-9 compliance training is professional education for HR professionals, business owners, and compliance staff on the federal Form I-9 employment eligibility verification process required of all U.S. employers under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Effective I-9 compliance training covers the statute (8 U.S.C. § 1324a), the regulations (8 C.F.R. Part 274a), the related anti-discrimination provisions (8 U.S.C. § 1324b), Form I-9 completion procedures, reverification, E-Verify, self-audit procedures, and worksite enforcement response.

  • ICE worksite enforcement activity has increased substantially in 2024 through 2026, and ICE rescinded its 2018 worksite enforcement Virtue memo in March 2026. Civil penalties for I-9 paperwork violations now reach over $2,800 per violation under the federal civil penalty inflation adjustment, and DOJ-IER citizenship status discrimination settlements regularly exceed $100,000. HR professionals carry direct personal exposure under the "knowingly hire" standard at 8 U.S.C. § 1324a(e)(4), making competent I-9 training essential.

  • The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort is eligible for 5.0 SHRM Professional Development Credits (PDCs) via self-submission under SHRM's "Advancing Your Education — Continuing Legal Education" category. The cohort consists of five 60-minute live instructional sessions, totaling 5.0 instructional hours. SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP credential holders may self-submit attendance using the Certificate of Completion issued at the end of the program.

  • The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort is eligible for 5.0 HRCI General HR (HR) recertification credits via self-submission under HRCI's Continuing Education category. PHR, SPHR, aPHR, PHRca, and GPHR credential holders may self-submit attendance using the Certificate of Completion issued at the end of the program.

  • All five sessions are taught live via Zoom Webinar with synchronous attorney Q&A. Recordings are made available to registered participants for 90 days following the original session date for review purposes. Participants who cannot attend a live session may watch the recording within 90 days and remain eligible for the Certificate of Completion.

  • Each registered participant receives the full cohort resource library:

    • HR-Rep M-274 Cheat Sheet

    • Documents Decision Tree

    • Reverification Tickler Spreadsheet

    • TNC Response Timeline Tracker

    • NOI First-72-Hours Checklist

    • Quarterly Self-Audit Worksheet

  • Yes. Session 4 of the cohort covers E-Verify enrollment, the Memorandum of Understanding, federal contractor mandates under FAR 52.222-54, state E-Verify laws (including Florida's mandatory E-Verify requirement under Fla. Stat. § 448.095 for employers with 25 or more employees), the Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) procedure, the Final Nonconfirmation procedure, and the citizenship status discrimination exposure that drives most DOJ-IER E-Verify settlements.

  • Yes. Session 5 of the cohort is dedicated to surviving an ICE worksite enforcement action. Topics include the three-business-day NOI production rule, the difference between an administrative Notice of Inspection, an administrative subpoena, and a judicial warrant under Marshall v. Barlow's, attorney-client privileged self-audit procedures, and the OCAHO penalty mitigation framework. Participants receive an NOI First-72-Hours Checklist as a take-home resource.

  • The founding cohort begins Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. The five sessions run weekly through Tuesday, July 21, 2026. The bonus group office hours session takes place Tuesday, August 18, 2026, at 1:00 PM ET. All sessions are 60 minutes.

  • Standard tuition for The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort is $1,497 per participant for five live sessions, one bonus office hours session, 90-day recording access, the full resource library, and the Certificate of Completion.

    By comparison, free SHRM and HRCI webinars (such as those from E-Verify and HCI) typically offer 1.0 to 1.5 PDCs without live attorney Q&A or take-home tools.

  • Free I-9 webinars from sources like the E-Verify program, the Society for Human Resource Management, or the Human Capital Institute are valuable for foundational awareness and typically offer 1.0 to 1.5 SHRM and HRCI credits per session. The HR I-9 Compliance Cohort is different in three ways: it is taught by a former federal immigration attorney rather than an HR generalist, it includes live small-group Q&A on real workplace cases, and it provides take-home compliance tools you can use with your team Monday morning.

  • Refund and transfer policies are detailed on the registration page. Participants who register but cannot attend live sessions retain 90-day recording access and remain eligible for the Certificate of Completion provided they complete the recordings within the access window.

  • The cohort is taught by an attorney admitted in Florida and the District of Columbia. The substantive content is federal — the Form I-9 process is uniform across all 50 states under federal law. State-specific E-Verify mandates are addressed in Session 4 with Florida used as a primary case study. PHRca holders may self-submit the cohort under HRCI's Continuing Education category; specific California-credit requirements should be verified with HRCI directly.