Form I-9

Form I-9 is the federal form used to verify that each person hired is who they say they are and is authorized to work in the United States. It comes from the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which made employers responsible for verifying work authorization and prohibited knowingly employing people who are not authorized.

Every employee hired in the United States needs one, including U.S. citizens. It is not an immigration screening tool and it is not a background check. It is an identity and authorization verification with a fixed process and a hard deadline.

How the form is structured

Section 1 is the employee attestation. The employee provides their information and attests to their citizenship or immigration status. They complete and sign it themselves, no later than their first day of employment, and it may be completed after the job offer is accepted. A preparer or translator who assists completes the supplement for that purpose.

Section 2 is the employer verification. The employer examines original documentation the employee chooses to present and records what was examined. Documents come from three lists: List A establishes both identity and work authorization on its own, while List B establishes identity and List C establishes work authorization, and a List B document must be paired with a List C document. The employee decides which acceptable documents to present. The employer may not specify which ones.

Reverification, when it is required, is recorded in the supplement for reverification and rehire. USCIS publishes an edition date on the form, so always start from the current edition rather than a stored copy.

Completing an I-9 for a new hire

The order and the timing are both prescribed.

1. 1After the offer is accepted, give the employee the current edition of the form together with the Lists of Acceptable Documents so they can choose what to present.
2. 2The employee completes and signs Section 1 no later than the first day of employment. It may not be required before the offer is accepted.
3. 3The employee presents original, unexpired documentation of their own choosing: one document from List A, or one from List B plus one from List C.
4. 4The employer examines the documents physically, or through the alternative remote examination procedure if the employer qualifies to use it, and confirms the documents reasonably appear genuine and relate to the person presenting them.
5. 5The employer completes Section 2, recording the document title, issuing authority, number, and expiration date, along with the first day of employment, and signs it within three business days of that first day.
6. 6File the completed form separately from the personnel file, together with any document copies if the employer copies documents, which must be done consistently for all employees if done at all.
7. 7Calculate the retention date and record it, since the retention period depends on both the hire date and the eventual separation date.
8. 8Reverify work authorization before an employee temporary authorization expires, using the reverification supplement. Reverification is not required for U.S. citizens or noncitizen nationals, for lawful permanent residents who presented a Permanent Resident Card, or for expired List B identity documents.

Deadlines and retention

These are the timing rules the process turns on.

Where I-9s go wrong

Most penalties come from paperwork defects rather than from knowingly employing unauthorized workers.

• Missing the three business day window because onboarding paperwork was scheduled for the end of the first week.
• Missing signatures or dates. An unsigned Section 1 or Section 2 is one of the most frequently cited defects.
• Over-documentation: asking for more documents than required, or asking to see a specific document. The employee chooses from the acceptable lists, and demanding a particular document can constitute document abuse.
• Requesting different documentation from employees who appear or sound foreign born, which is discriminatory regardless of intent.
• Completing Section 1 for the employee or filling in fields the employee must complete.
• Storing I-9s inside personnel files, which forces disclosure of unrelated records during an inspection.
• Correcting errors improperly. Corrections are made by drawing a single line through the incorrect entry, entering the correct information, and initialing and dating the change. Do not use correction fluid and do not backdate.
• Purging forms on a fixed schedule rather than on the later of the two retention dates, which destroys records that were still required.
• Reverifying people who should never be reverified, such as lawful permanent residents who presented a Permanent Resident Card.

Staying inspection ready

Government inspections are announced with a short production window, which is not enough time to fix a filing system.

• Keep I-9s in a dedicated file, separate from personnel records, and separate current employees from terminated employees whose retention period has not expired.
• Run an internal review periodically against a written protocol, correcting errors in the prescribed way and documenting what was corrected and when.
• Track expiring work authorization far enough ahead that reverification happens before the expiration date rather than after.
• Apply one practice to document copying: copy for everyone or for no one, and store copies with the form.
• Train everyone who completes Section 2, including managers at remote sites, since decentralized completion is where inconsistency starts.
• Recalculate the retention date at every separation and record it, so purging becomes a defensible routine rather than a guess.

Why it matters operationally

The I-9 is the only onboarding document with a federal deadline measured in business days, which makes it the constraint that shapes the first week of employment. Every other onboarding task can slip. This one cannot.

It is also unusual in that both directions are penalized. Failing to verify is a violation, and over-verifying or demanding specific documents is a separate violation with its own enforcement path. The safe position is a consistent process applied identically to every new hire, run by trained people, with the forms stored where they can be produced on short notice.