Form I-9 Eligibility Verification: Deadlines, Documents, and Penalties

Every U.S. employer must complete a Form I-9 for each person they hire, citizen or not, to verify the worker’s identity and legal authorization to work. The core Form I-9 employer requirements are straightforward on paper: have the employee fill out Section 1 no later than their first day of work, examine acceptable original documents and complete Section 2 within three business days of hire, retain the form for the required period, reverify when work authorization expires, and produce the forms on demand during a government inspection.¹ Getting any of it wrong exposes the business to fines that start at $288 per form for paperwork mistakes and climb into tens of thousands per worker for knowingly hiring someone unauthorized.²

The Deadlines That Govern Everything Else

The employee must finish Section 1 no later than their first day of work. The employer then has three business days from the hire date to complete Section 2, which includes physically examining the employee’s original documents. If someone is hired for a job lasting fewer than three business days, both sections must be completed on the first day of work.³

Letting someone start work before they finish Section 1 is a violation, full stop. “Three business days” runs from the actual hire date, not from whenever the employee gets around to bringing documents in. Auditors check these dates closely, and late completions are among the easiest violations to prove.

What Documents the Employee May Present

Acceptable documents fall into three lists. A List A document proves both identity and work authorization at once. A List B document proves identity only, and a List C document proves work authorization only. An employee who presents a valid List A document is done. Otherwise, they present one from List B and one from List C.³

Common List A documents include a U.S. passport and a Permanent Resident Card. List B documents include a state-issued driver’s license or photo ID card, or a school ID with a photograph. List C documents include an unrestricted Social Security card or an original or certified birth certificate with an official seal. A Social Security card marked “not valid for employment” does not qualify. USCIS publishes the complete list on its website.⁴

Documents must be originals, not photocopies, with narrow exceptions for certified birth certificates. The employer’s job is limited: check whether the documents reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting them. You are not expected to be a fraud expert, but you cannot accept something obviously fake or clearly belonging to someone else.

The Employee Chooses the Documents

This is where employers create liability without realizing it. The employee picks which acceptable documents to present. You cannot request a specific document, demand more documents than the form requires, or refuse a document that reasonably appears genuine. Any of these is an unfair immigration-related employment practice known as document abuse.⁵

Common missteps: telling a new hire to “bring your passport” instead of explaining the three lists, rejecting a valid foreign passport with a work visa because it looks unfamiliar, or asking a worker who already provided a List A document to also bring a Social Security card. Any of these can trigger a discrimination complaint with the Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, with penalties described further below.

When the Employee Presents a Receipt

If an employee’s document was lost, stolen, or damaged, or they are waiting for a replacement, they may present a receipt showing they have applied for the replacement. Employers must accept valid receipts in place of a List A, B, or C document, with one exception: receipts are not acceptable if the job lasts fewer than three business days.⁶

A receipt for a replacement document is valid for 90 days from the hire date, after which the employee must present the actual replacement. Refugees who present a Form I-94 showing refugee admission also get 90 days, after which they must show either an Employment Authorization Document or a combination of a List B document and an unrestricted Social Security card. An employee with a temporary I-551 stamp on a Form I-94 has until the stamp’s expiration date, or one year from admission if no expiration is listed.⁶

When recording a receipt in Section 2, write “Receipt” followed by the document title. When the employee brings in the actual document, cross out the receipt entry, add the new document information in the Additional Information field, and initial and date the change. You cannot accept a second receipt after the first expires.

Who Can Complete Section 2 for the Employer

Employers do not have to personally inspect every employee’s documents. Anyone the employer designates can act as an authorized representative to complete Section 2, including HR staff, office managers, notaries public, or third-party vendors. No formal contract is required.⁷

Two limits apply. An employee can never serve as their own authorized representative and cannot verify their own documents. And the employer remains fully liable for any I-9 violations the representative commits. If a representative fills out the form incorrectly or misses a deadline, the business pays the penalty.⁷ A notary who acts as the representative is doing so in that capacity only, not as a notary, and should not apply a notary seal to the Form I-9.

Reverification and Rehires

When an employee’s work authorization has an expiration date, the employer must reverify before that date passes. USCIS recommends starting at least 90 days ahead by reminding the employee. At reverification, the employee presents a new unexpired document from either List A or List C showing continued work authorization, and the employer records it in Supplement B of the Form I-9.⁸

Reverification is never required for U.S. citizens or noncitizen nationals. It is also never required when these documents expire: U.S. passports, U.S. passport cards, Permanent Resident Cards, and any List B identity documents.⁹ Reverifying a Green Card holder whose card has simply expired is a common mistake that can lead to a discrimination charge. The exception involves a lawful permanent resident who presented a temporary I-551 stamp rather than an actual card; the employer must reverify when that stamp expires.⁸

When setting the reverification deadline, check both Section 1 (where the employee entered their work authorization expiration date) and Section 2 (where the document’s expiration appears). If those dates differ, reverify by the earlier one.

How Long to Keep the Form

Employers must retain each Form I-9 for whichever is later: three years after the hire date, or one year after the employee’s last day of work.³

Forms may be stored as paper, electronically, or on microfilm or microfiche. Electronic systems must allow quick retrieval of individual forms, include a quality control program, produce legible paper copies on demand, and protect records against unauthorized changes or deletions. Keeping forms longer than required is not illegal, but it adds exposure during audits and raises privacy concerns.

E-Verify and Remote Document Examination

E-Verify is an online system that electronically confirms a new hire’s employment eligibility by checking information from the I-9 against federal databases. Most private employers are not federally required to use it, but federal contractors with contracts worth more than $150,000, lasting 120 days or longer, and including the FAR E-Verify clause must participate.¹⁰ Roughly 22 states mandate E-Verify for at least some employers, so state law may require participation even where federal law does not.

Employers enrolled in E-Verify in good standing may use remote document examination in place of an in-person physical inspection, through a DHS-authorized procedure. An employer that offers remote examination at a hiring site must offer it consistently to all employees at that site. The one exception: an employer may limit remote examination to fully remote employees while keeping physical examination for onsite and hybrid workers, so long as the distinction is not based on citizenship status or national origin.¹¹

Prime federal contractors must also require their subcontractors to use E-Verify when the subcontract exceeds $3,500, includes work performed in the United States, and covers services or construction.¹⁰

Government Inspections

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, and the Department of Labor all have authority to inspect I-9 records. Employers generally receive a written Notice of Inspection at least three days before the audit begins, providing time to gather forms.¹²

Inspectors review every form for completeness, accuracy, and timeliness. Missing forms for current employees are treated as violations, and backdating a form after receiving an inspection notice makes matters worse. The practical response is to run internal I-9 audits periodically rather than wait for the government to find problems.

Penalties

Paperwork Violations

Failing to properly complete, retain, or produce a Form I-9 carries civil fines of $288 to $2,861 per form.² Missing signatures, blank fields, late completions, and forms that were never created all qualify. Multiplied across a workforce, sloppy recordkeeping alone can produce six-figure exposure.

Knowingly Hiring Unauthorized Workers

Penalties rise sharply when an employer knowingly hires or continues to employ someone not authorized to work. The current inflation-adjusted fines, applied to penalties assessed after July 3, 2025, are:

First offense: $716 to $5,724 per unauthorized worker
Second offense: $5,724 to $14,308 per unauthorized worker
Third or subsequent offense: $8,586 to $28,619 per unauthorized worker²

An employer engaged in a pattern or practice of hiring unauthorized workers faces criminal prosecution as well: a fine of up to $3,000 per unauthorized worker plus imprisonment of up to six months for the pattern as a whole.¹³

Discrimination and Document Abuse

Document abuse and other unfair immigration-related employment practices carry a separate penalty structure. Document abuse fines run from $236 to $2,364 per person affected. Broader citizenship status or national origin discrimination fines start at $590 to $4,730 for a first violation and rise to $7,093 to $23,647 for employers with multiple prior orders.²

The Good Faith Defense

Employers who properly complete the I-9 process gain a statutory shield. If a worker later turns out to be unauthorized despite the employer following all verification procedures in good faith, the employer has an affirmative defense against a knowing-hire charge.¹³ The defense only works if the employer actually followed the rules: the form was completed on time, original documents were examined, and no red flags were ignored. A sloppy I-9 creates a paperwork fine and also destroys the one defense that could have blocked far larger liability.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification
2
GovInfo. Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustments for 2025
3
eCFR. 8 CFR 274a.2 – Verification of Identity and Employment Authorization
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 Acceptable Documents
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 14.0 Some Questions You May Have About Form I-9
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 4.4 Acceptable Receipts
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Section 2, Employer Review and Attestation
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Supplement B, Reverification and Rehires (formerly Section 3)
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 6.0 Completing Supplement B, Reverification and Rehire of Form I-9
10
E-Verify. Who is Affected by the E-Verify Federal Contractor Rule
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Remote Document Examination (Optional Alternative Procedure to Physical Document Examination)
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 Inspections
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1324a – Unlawful Employment of Aliens