Federal law requires you to keep each completed Form I-9 until the later of two dates: three years after the employee’s hire date, or one year after the date employment ends.1eCFR. 8 CFR 274a.2 – Verification of Identity and Employment Authorization That formula tells you how long to retain I-9 forms for every person hired after November 6, 1986.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 10.0 Retaining Form I-9 Destroy a form too early and you face fines during an audit; keep it too long and you’re holding sensitive personal data past the point of any legitimate need.
Calculating the Retention Deadline
For each separated employee, compute two dates and keep the form until the later one passes:
- Date A: three years after the hire date entered in the “First Day of Employment” field in Section 2.
- Date B: one year after the date employment ended.
Whichever falls later is your retention deadline.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification A shortcut works in most cases: if the employee stayed less than two years, three years from the hire date wins. If they stayed longer than two years, one year after their last day wins.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 10.0 Retaining Form I-9
Take an employee hired on March 1, 2022, who leaves on June 1, 2023. Date A is March 1, 2025. Date B is June 1, 2024. You keep the form until March 1, 2025. Now take someone hired the same day who stays until December 1, 2025. Date A is still March 1, 2025, but Date B is December 1, 2026. That form stays on file until December 2026. The formula never changes; the length of employment just decides which date controls.
Current Employees
While an employee is still on your payroll, the retention clock hasn’t started. Keep the Form I-9 on file for the full duration of employment, and only begin counting once the person separates.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification
Rehires and Reverifications
If you rehire someone within three years of the date their original Form I-9 was completed, you can either complete a new form or update the existing one using Supplement B (formerly Section 3).4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Supplement B, Reverification and Rehires If the original form is on an edition that has since expired, use Supplement B from the current edition and attach it to the original. Outside the three-year window, skip Supplement B and start fresh. When you use Supplement B for a rehire, retention resets based on the new hire date.
Reverification applies to employees whose work authorization document carries an expiration date. Complete the reverification in Supplement B no later than that expiration date, using a current List A or List C document. The reverified form still follows the standard retention rule once the employee eventually leaves. U.S. citizens, noncitizen nationals, and certain other categories such as refugees and asylees who did not present an expiring document in Section 2 do not require reverification.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 6.1 Reverifying Employment Authorization for Current Employees
How and Where to Store the Forms
You can keep completed I-9 forms on paper, on microfilm or microfiche, or electronically, and you can mix formats.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 10.0 Retaining Form I-9 The one non-negotiable requirement: you must be able to produce any form within three business days of a government request.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retention and Storage
On-site or off-site storage are both allowed as long as you can meet that three-day window.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retention and Storage Many employers keep I-9s separate from general personnel files so they can be pulled for inspection without exposing unrelated records.
An electronic storage system has to log every action taken on each form, including who accessed it, when, and what they did. It must include safeguards against unauthorized changes or data loss and a backup and recovery plan.1eCFR. 8 CFR 274a.2 – Verification of Identity and Employment Authorization During an inspection, you must provide the hardware and software an officer needs to review the electronic records.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 Inspections
E-Verify participants have an additional record-keeping obligation. You must record or print and keep the E-Verify case number for each corresponding Form I-9, retained for the same period as the underlying form.8E-Verify. E-Verify Records Retention and Disposal Fact Sheet If you used the DHS-authorized remote document examination alternative, you must also keep clear copies (front and back) of every document examined remotely for as long as the employee works for you, plus the standard retention period after employment ends.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Remote Examination of Documents
Mergers and Acquisitions
If you acquire or merge with another business, you have two options for employees who continue working under the new entity. Treat them as new hires and complete fresh I-9 forms, or treat them as continuing employees and take over their existing I-9s.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Mergers and Acquisitions
Inheriting the existing forms is faster but carries a catch: you take on full responsibility for any errors or omissions on them. A botched Section 2 or a missed reverification from the prior employer becomes your problem during an audit. USCIS recommends reviewing each inherited form with the employee and updating or reverifying as needed.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Mergers and Acquisitions Whichever route you take, retention runs from the appropriate hire date for that form.
Disposing of Forms After the Deadline
Once the retention period passes, destroy the forms rather than letting them pile up. I-9 records contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and immigration document numbers. Federal guidance does not prescribe a specific method, but standard data-protection practices apply: shred paper forms and use a documented, secure wipe process for electronic records that prevents recovery.
A regular purge schedule is the most reliable approach. Each quarter or year, identify former employees whose retention deadlines have passed and destroy those forms. Holding records past the required period creates liability if they are breached or improperly accessed, with no corresponding benefit during an inspection.
What Non-Compliance Costs
Penalty amounts are adjusted for inflation and published in the Federal Register. The adjustment effective January 2, 2025, sets these ranges:11Federal Register. Civil Monetary Penalty Adjustments for Inflation
- Paperwork violations (incomplete, missing, or uncorrected I-9 forms): $288 to $2,861 per form.
- Knowingly employing unauthorized workers, first offense: $716 to $5,724 per worker.
- Second offense: $5,724 to $14,308 per worker.
- Third or subsequent offense: $8,586 to $28,619 per worker.
Paperwork fines are per form, not per error. A single I-9 with five blank fields is one violation, but 200 incomplete forms are 200 violations. Severe or repeated violations can also lead to debarment from federal contracts and, in cases of a pattern of knowingly hiring unauthorized workers or document fraud, criminal prosecution. Self-auditing and correcting problems before an inspection is worth the effort long before any Notice of Inspection arrives.