Integrating with WorkBright (I-9 & E-Verify)

Workable integrates with WorkBright to help you manage Form I-9 and E-Verify processes directly within onboarding workflows or as standalone employee requests. This enables you to stay compliant with US employment regulations while keeping all steps centralized in Workable. 

Form I-9 is required for all US hires to verify identity and work authorization, while E-Verify allows employers to confirm this information electronically with government databases.

Setting up the integration

Before using I-9 in Workable, you need to purchase credits and complete the integration setup.

Purchasing I-9 credits

1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Apps.
2. Locate the WorkBright integration under the Compliance section.
3. Click Learn more or Purchase credits.
4. Request a call with the sales team or submit an internal request (depending on your permissions).

Enabling the integration

Once credits are purchased, your Implementation Manager will proceed with the following:

1. Will create a WorkBright account for you.
2. Enter your WorkBright subdomain and API key under Settings > Integrations > Apps.
3. Save your settings to activate the integration.

Adding an I-9 task to an onboarding workflow

You can include I-9 as part of your onboarding process as described below. Each onboarding workflow can include only one I-9 task.

1. Go to Settings > Onboarding.
2. Create or edit an onboarding workflow.
3. In the tasks step, select Add task.
4. Choose "Complete I-9 form" and configure the following:
   
   • Task deadline: This is by default 3 days after the employee's start date and can be updated to match your needs. 
   • Task can be completed before start date: Enabled by default in order to make I-9 completion available on the employee onboarding website. 
   • Include E-Verify: Disabled by default, as E-Verify is optional and applicable to a specific group of employers in the US.
   • Remote document verification: Disabled by default. When enabled, Section 2 will be available for countersignature remotely by a 3rd party adult.
   • Reviewer: The employee who is also an admin in WorkBright will be notified to review the Section 1 attached documents and countersign the I-9 form’s Section 2.
   • Task details: Task heading and description that will be visible on the onboarding website for the new employee.

Starting onboarding

When you stard onboarding using a workflow that includes the I-9 task:

• Available I-9 credits are displayed.
• One credit is deducted when the workflow starts.
• Employees receive the I-9 task in their onboarding portal.

What employees will see

When the onboarded employee selects "Complete I-9" the necessary steps to fill in Section 1 will be initiated.

If the onboarding workflow also allows remote document verification and countersignature for Section 2, when Section 1 is completed, the employees will receive a message informing them that they will need to come back later to complete the process. 

An email will be sent to them once Section 2 completion and remote document verification are due.

Requesting I-9 forms individually

You can also request I-9 forms outside onboarding for employees that have already joined Workable as members. This is useful for existing employees or rehires.

1. Go to an employee profile.
2. Select Actions > Request I-9 form.
   
3. Configure the request and assign a reviewer.
   

For an employee profile, more than one I-9 forms can exist. In order to start an I-9 form, the previous one should be in a final state, either Completed or Failed. If an employee profile has an I-9 form in progress due to an onboarding workfl

Completing an I-9 form

The I-9 process includes multiple steps involving the employee and the reviewer.

Section 1 - completed by employee

The employee is responsible for completing Section 1 of the I-9 form via the onboarding portal.

During this step, the employee:

1. Enters personal details such as full name, address, date of birth, and Social Security Number (if required). Any corrections happening within the I-9 form will not be reflected in the Workable employee profile.
   
2. Selects their citizenship or immigration status from predefined options.
   
3. Choose their documentation that verifies their identity and employment eligibility to work in the US.
   
4. Add Preparer & Translator Certification, if there exists someone who assists the employee with the completion of the process. This is common for cases of immigrants who do not know the process or the language that well, so they ask some experts/agencies for their services. 
   
5. Review and sign Section 1.
   

Employees who already have access to Workable will receive an Inbox entry, a to-do item, and an email/Slack notification prompting them to complete their I-9 form.

Section 1 review (Reviewer)

Once the employee has completed their part for Section 1, HR Admins will be notified (Inbox entry, a to-do item, and an email/Slack notification) that they need to review their uploaded documents. 

The Inbox item will include a 'Review documents' action and when selected you will be prompted to login to WorkBright to Accept or Reject the documents of the employee.

⚠️ This is an optional step and it depends on the setup of the I-9 form in WorkBright. When the related option is turned off, attached documents will be automatically approved and this step is skipped.

Once you Accept the documents that are previewed in the above page, Section 2 completion will start, depending on the setup of the document.

If the documents are Rejected, then the specific I-9 form will reach a Failed state and a new one will be needed for that specific employee. Rejection in WorkBright requires also the selection of the reason that the document is rejected: 

Section 2 - remote completion (Employee + 3rd party)

Employee actions

Once the I-9 Section 1 is approved by the reviewer or automatically, the employee is notified to proceed to the remote verification of the documents.

• When they are still in the onboarding process and have access to the onboarding website only, they will receive an email with a link to open the onboarding website and proceed with completing the I-9 task they are assigned, as shown here.

• When they have access to Workable, they will receive an Inbox entry, a to-do item, and an email/Slack notification to complete remote verification.
  

  

Once they start the process they will be prompted to enable their location services on the device they are using and insert the US mobile number of the 3rd party representative that will verify the documents. This will trigger a link via SMS to the 3rd party representative that will verify the authenticity of the documents.

If the 3rd party representative does not receive any SMS message, the employee can still send the verification link manually by selecting the 'Send Text Message' action in the following screen. This will create a new SMS message on their device and prompt them to send it manually.

3rd party representative actions

Once the 3rd party representative opens the link they will be prompted to complete the following:

1. Share their location.
2. Provide their Full Name and attest that they are a 3rd party and not the employee that is being verified.
   
3. Start the review of the documents.
   
4. Verify that the physical copies of the presented documents have been reviewed and that they are authentic. 
   
5. Sign Section 2 and select 'Complete Verification'. 
   

Once verification is complete, the 3rd party representative will see a confirmation message and they can close their browser, while the employee’s process will be closed automatically and document status will be updated.

Section 2 completion (Reviewer)

Once the I-9 Section 1 is approved by the reviewer or automatically, the reviewer is notified again to proceed to the completion of Section 2. They will receive a new Inbox entry, a to-do item, and an email/Slack notification prompting them to sign the I-9 and complete the process. 

When they select Sign I-9, WorkBright will open in a new tab and view the employee details, attached documents.

When the reviewer clicks Next they are asked to fill in their data and sign the document.

E-Verify execution

If E-Verify submission is enabled for an I-9 form:

• An E-Verify case is automatically created after Section 2 is completed.
• Results are typically returned within minutes and you can track its progress.
• Reviewers are notified (Inbox entry, a to-do item, and an email/Slack notification) if action is required (e.g. photo mismatch or tentative non-confirmation).

E-Verify warning issues are handled in WorkBright by the reviewer that is notified. Photo mismatch warning, for example, requires the administrator to verify if the photo that exists in E-Verify is the same person as in the documents that were uploaded.

If the reviewer is sure that the photos represent the same person, they can confirm by selecting 'Yes, the photos match'. Else they can proceed with 'No, the photos do not match' and the system will indicate the next actions that themselves or the employee needs to take in order to update their photos in the related Government agency.

Tracking progress for I-9 and E-Verify

You can monitor the progress of I-9 and E-verify tasks and track their completion status, identify pending actions, and follow up when needed. In the employee profile onboarding tab, I-9 task has its own category for easy filtering and is listed in the tasks list according to its due date. 

The onboarding task overall status starts from 'To-do' and moves to 'In progress' when the employee starts Section 1 for the first time. It is considered 'Done' when the whole process is completed, depending on the task steps:

• Section 2 is countersigned and there is no E-Verify process following.
• E-Verify process is completed and has returned a final response (might be as well non-autorization).

The same information will also appear under the Onboarding dashboard when viewing the onboarding details of an employee.

A new tab will be available in the employee profile Files application, namely I-9 & E-verify. This tab will be visible to all HR Admins and users with permission to view or manage e-signature documents. For employees it will be available only if they have at least one I-9 document assigned to them anytime.

The tab includes detailed information about each I-9 that is linked to the specific employee, its steps and the owner of the steps:

• Section 1: Always applicable with owner the employee.
• Section 2: Always applicable with owner the reviewer or an authorized representative for remote verification.
• E-Verify: Applicable only for I-9 documents that were chosen to be submitted to E-Verify when they were requested. 

Dependent on the document status, the available actions in the contextual menu might be: 

• View in WorkBright: Available for documents that are in progress or later and opens WorkBright in a new tab for better visibility to the reviewer of the actual status of the document. Needs access to WorkBright.
• Download: Available for documents whose Section 2 is completed and are ready to be downloaded. Opens the document in a new tab, as currently happens with e-signatures. 

I-9 & E-Verify in Files

A user with permission to view or manage e-signature documents can view all the I-9 forms that are created in the account within the Files tab under the main navigation bar.

Selecting I-9 & E-Verify will display a list of all the I-9 forms that belong to employees that the user can view. For each I-9 form the below information will be displayed:

• Section 1 (Employee): The employee that the document is assigned to, along with the Section 1 status as an icon. 

• Section 2 (Reviewer): The reviewer that is set for each document or remote verification in case section 2 is completed by an authorized representative, along with the Section 2 status as an icon. 

• E-Verify: N/A if there is no E-Verify submission for the related document or the status of the E-Verify submission.

• Status: The overall status of the document.

• Last modified: The date that a document was updated the last time.

You can filter results with the Status column to see the ones that need attention or are completed. Each table row offers the following actions in the 3-dot menu: 

• View in profile: Available to all users, links to the employee profile detailed view for a more comprehensive view of the individual steps statuses. 

• View in WorkBright: Opening in a new tab the related form in WorkBright. Available to users that can manage e-siganture documents. Requires access to WorkBright. 

• Download: Available for all documents that have their section 2 completed and that have a file available for download.

FAQs

What will happen in the cases of employee offboarding, rehire or deletion?

• Offboarding: The employee is marked as inactive in WorkBright, but existing I-9 records remain available.
• Rehire: The existing WorkBright profile is reactivated and updated, allowing a new I-9 to be created.
• Deletion: A warning is shown if I-9 data exists, but deletion is still allowed; all related WorkBright data is permanently removed and cannot be recovered.