Form I-9 Rules: Deadlines, Documents, and E-Verify

Form I-9 rules require every U.S. employer to verify the identity and work authorization of each person hired for paid employment. The employee fills out their portion of the form no later than the first day of work, the employer completes the verification within three business days of the start date, and the finished form stays on file for at least three years after hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. Missing, late, or inaccurate forms can trigger fines that reach thousands of dollars per form.

Who Needs a Form I-9

The requirement applies to everyone hired for employment in the United States, citizens and noncitizens alike.¹ A few narrow situations fall outside the rule. You do not complete an I-9 for independent contractors, casual domestic workers hired sporadically for work in your private home, workers supplied by a staffing agency (their staffing company handles the I-9), employees working entirely from another country, or anyone continuously employed since on or before November 6, 1986.²

If a worker doesn’t fit one of those exceptions and you’re paying them for work performed in the United States, they need a Form I-9.

Deadlines for Section 1 and Section 2

The form has two parts with separate deadlines. The employee completes Section 1, which records name, address, date of birth, and citizenship or immigration status. This section must be filled out and signed no later than the first day of work for pay, though the employee may complete it any time after accepting the job offer.³ The employee checks one of four status boxes: U.S. citizen, noncitizen national, lawful permanent resident, or noncitizen authorized to work.⁴

You then examine the employee’s documents and complete Section 2 within three business days of the start date. If a new hire starts Monday, Section 2 is due by Thursday. One exception: when the job itself lasts fewer than three business days, Section 2 must be finished on the first day of employment.⁵

Acceptable Documents

Employees prove identity and work authorization with original documents from lists maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.⁶ The employee picks which documents to present. You cannot demand specific documents or ask for more than the form requires. Doing so is an unfair documentary practice and can trigger discrimination penalties.⁷

A single List A document proves both identity and work authorization. Common examples include a U.S. passport, U.S. passport card, or Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551).⁸ Alternatively, the employee can present one List B document that proves identity (a driver’s license or state ID) plus one List C document that proves work authorization (a Social Security card without employment restrictions or a birth certificate).

Receipts and Missing Documents

If a document has been lost, stolen, or damaged, the employee can present a receipt showing they applied for a replacement. The receipt is valid for 90 days from the hire date, and the actual replacement document must be presented before those 90 days end.⁹ Receipts are not accepted for jobs lasting fewer than three business days.¹⁰

An employer may terminate an employee who fails to produce acceptable documentation or a valid receipt within three business days of starting work.¹¹ Keeping the person on the payroll without a completed I-9 exposes you to civil penalties.

How to Examine the Documents

The employer or an authorized representative must physically examine the employee’s original documents. The standard is that documents must reasonably appear genuine and relate to the person presenting them. You are not expected to be a fraud expert, but you are expected to look at what’s in front of you and reject anything obviously fake or belonging to someone else.

You then record the document title, issuing authority, document number, and expiration date (if any) in Section 2 and sign and date the section.⁵ Your signature is an attestation under penalty of perjury.

Remote Examination for E-Verify Employers

Employers enrolled in E-Verify in good standing have the option to examine documents remotely. The employee sends clear copies of documents (front and back), then presents the same documents on a live video call for comparison. You check a box in Section 2 indicating you used the alternative procedure and keep clear copies of the documents on file through the retention period.¹²

The eligibility rule is strict. Only employers enrolled in E-Verify at every hiring site using the procedure can examine documents remotely. If you’re not in E-Verify, you must examine documents in person even for fully remote employees, and hiring a third-party vendor to run the video call does not change that.¹³

The Current Form Edition

As of 2026, the current edition of Form I-9 carries an edition date of 01/20/25 and does not expire until 05/31/2027. The prior 08/01/23 edition remains valid through 07/31/2026, after which electronic I-9 systems must use the newer version.¹ Using an expired edition is treated as a paperwork violation, so a calendar reminder well ahead of the transition date is worth setting.

Fixing Mistakes on the Form

Errors happen. Catching them during an internal audit costs far less than having them found during a government inspection. Who fixes what depends on which section holds the mistake.

Section 1

Only the employee can correct Section 1. You notify the employee, but you cannot touch that section yourself. The employee draws a line through the wrong entry, writes the correct information, and initials and dates the change.¹⁴ If the employee no longer works for you, don’t chase them down. Attach a signed and dated note to the form explaining the error and why it wasn’t corrected.

Section 2 and Supplement B

Only the employer or an authorized representative corrects these sections. Same method: line through the wrong information, enter the correct information, initial and date. If you forgot to date Section 2 originally, use the current date and initial next to it. Do not backdate.¹⁵

If a form has so many errors that individual corrections would be unreadable, complete a new form for the section, staple it to the original, and attach a written explanation. Never use correction fluid or erase entries. Concealing changes raises red flags during an inspection.

How Long to Keep the Form

Keep every current employee’s Form I-9 on file for the entire time they work for you. After employment ends, retain the form until three years after the hire date or one year after the termination date, whichever is later.¹⁶ For someone hired January 1, 2024, who left February 1, 2025, the three-year date (January 1, 2027) is later than the one-year date (February 1, 2026), so you keep the form until January 1, 2027.

Forms can be kept on paper, electronically, or on microfilm or microfiche. Whatever format you choose, forms must be retrievable within three business days of an inspection request. When ICE serves a Notice of Inspection, you get at least three business days to produce the requested forms.¹⁷ Once the retention period ends, destroy the forms securely; they contain Social Security numbers and other personal data.

Re-verification and Rehires

Re-verification applies only to employees whose work authorization has an expiration date. U.S. citizens, noncitizen nationals, and lawful permanent residents who presented a Permanent Resident Card for Section 2 are never subject to re-verification.¹⁸ For everyone else, complete Supplement B (formerly Section 3) no later than the authorization expiration date. The employee presents a current List A or List C document showing continued authorization. USCIS recommends reminding affected employees at least 90 days ahead of the deadline.

When you rehire someone within three years of the date their original Form I-9 was completed, you can either complete a new I-9 or fill out a block on Supplement B of the existing form. If the previously documented authorization has expired, the employee must present a current List A or List C document before you record the rehire. Past three years, you start fresh with a new form.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Federal law splits I-9 penalties into paperwork violations and unlawful employment violations. The dollar figures written in the statute are base numbers that get adjusted for inflation each year, so the amounts actually assessed run higher than what appears in the statutory text.¹⁹

Paperwork Violations

Paperwork violations cover missing signatures, incomplete fields, late completion, and using an expired form edition. After the 2026 inflation adjustment, fines range from $288 to $2,861 per form. Because the penalty is calculated per form, even a small employer with a few dozen defective I-9s can face five-figure exposure.

Knowingly Employing Unauthorized Workers

Fines for hiring or continuing to employ someone not authorized to work are calculated per worker:

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

A pattern of knowingly hiring unauthorized workers can also lead to criminal prosecution, with fines up to $3,000 per worker and up to six months of imprisonment. When ICE sets a penalty amount within a range, it weighs the size of the business, good-faith compliance efforts, the seriousness of the violation, and the employer’s history. A company that ran internal audits and tried to fix errors is in a much stronger position than one that never looked at its files.

How E-Verify Fits In

E-Verify is a web-based system run by USCIS that compares an employee’s I-9 information against government records. It’s separate from the I-9 itself but linked to it: the I-9 comes first, then the data is submitted electronically through E-Verify.

E-Verify is voluntary for most private employers at the federal level. Federal contractors with contracts exceeding $350,000 in value and running longer than 120 days are generally required to use it, and subcontracts for services or construction worth more than $3,500 flowing from a covered prime contract carry the same requirement.²⁰ Roughly a dozen states mandate E-Verify for all or most private employers, with employee-count thresholds that vary by state. Several other states require it only for public employers or government contractors.

If E-Verify returns a mismatch (a Tentative Nonconfirmation), the employee has eight federal government working days to begin resolving the discrepancy. During that window, the employer cannot fire, suspend, or otherwise take adverse action against the employee based on the mismatch alone. Enrollment in E-Verify is also the gateway to the remote document examination procedure, which is the main reason many companies with distributed workforces sign up voluntarily.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Exceptions
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Section 1, Employee Information and Attestation
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Section 2, Employer Review and Attestation
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 Acceptable Documents
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 11.2 Types of Employment Discrimination Prohibited Under the INA – Section: Unfair Documentary Practices
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 13.1 List A Documents That Establish Identity and Employment Authorization
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-9 Central – Receipts
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 4.4 Acceptable Receipts
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 4.0 Completing Section 2: Employer Review and Verification
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Remote Examination of Documents (Optional Alternative Procedure)
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 4.5 Remote Document Examination (Optional Alternative Procedure)
14
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Guidance for Employers Conducting Internal Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 Audits
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 9.0 Correcting Errors or Missing Information on Form I-9
16
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 10.0 Retaining Form I-9
17
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Form I-9 Inspection Under Immigration and Nationality Act 274A
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Supplement B, Reverification and Rehires (Formerly Section 3)
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1324a – Unlawful Employment of Aliens
20
General Services Administration. FAR 52.222-54 Employment Eligibility Verification