Remote I-9 Verification: Eligibility, Steps, and Penalties

Remote I-9 verification lets an employer enrolled in E-Verify examine a new hire’s identity and work authorization documents over a live video call instead of in person. The Department of Homeland Security made this option permanent in July 2023, and it remains available to any E-Verify employer in good standing.¹ The employee sends copies of the documents, then presents the originals on camera so the employer can compare them. Employers who don’t use E-Verify cannot use this procedure and must arrange a physical examination instead.

Who Can Use It

The alternative procedure is limited to employers participating in E-Verify in good standing. Good standing means the employer is enrolled at each hiring site where remote examination will be used, actively submits E-Verify cases for new hires, and follows all program rules without unresolved compliance issues.¹ Lose good standing, and you lose the ability to verify remotely going forward.

Anyone at the company who will run these verifications must complete an E-Verify tutorial that includes training on spotting fraudulent documents. New E-Verify enrollees go through this training automatically; existing users can retake it at any time.¹ The whole procedure rests on the examiner recognizing what a genuine document looks like on camera.

The procedure is also optional for the employee. If a new hire prefers an in-person examination, accommodate that request rather than insisting on the video process.

How the Remote Examination Works

The employee completes Section 1 of Form I-9 no later than their first day of work. They can fill it out any time after accepting the job offer.²

Next, the employee sends the employer clear copies of their chosen documents, front and back where applicable. The employee picks either one document from List A (which proves both identity and work authorization) or one document from List B (identity only) together with one from List C (work authorization only). You cannot demand specific documents or steer the employee toward a particular list.³ Encrypted email or a secure upload portal are common ways to receive the copies.

You then hold a live video interaction with the employee. The employee holds up the same original physical documents they previously copied, and you compare the originals on camera against the digital copies already in hand. The documents must reasonably appear genuine and relate to the person presenting them. If the physical document looks altered or doesn’t match the copy, resolve the discrepancy before completing Section 2.

Section 2 must be finished within three business days of the employee’s first day of work. If the job lasts fewer than three days, Section 2 is due on day one.³ These deadlines apply identically to remote and in-person verification.

Marking the Form and Creating the E-Verify Case

After confirming the documents, check the box in the Additional Information field of Section 2 that indicates the alternative procedure was used. On the current edition of Form I-9 (dated 08/01/2023 or 01/20/2025), the checkbox sits directly in Section 2.¹ The checkbox is what tells a later auditor that the verification followed the remote protocol, so they’ll expect to see the retained document copies.

You also create an E-Verify case for the new hire under the normal E-Verify rules. The alternative procedure replaces only the physical document inspection, not the electronic employment verification step.

Consistency and Anti-Discrimination Rules

If you offer remote examination at a hiring site, you must offer it consistently for everyone at that site. One carve-out: you can limit remote examination to employees hired for fully remote positions while continuing to examine onsite or hybrid workers’ documents in person. That distinction has to rest on work arrangement, not on citizenship, national origin, or immigration status.⁴

The general I-9 anti-discrimination rules apply here in full. You cannot require particular documents, and you cannot impose different documentation rules on people who look or sound foreign.⁵ Routing certain employees into or away from the remote procedure based on protected characteristics is a fast path to a federal complaint.

Recordkeeping

Employers using the alternative procedure must keep clear, legible copies of every document examined during the remote process, front and back if two-sided. This is a real difference from traditional in-person verification, where retaining copies is generally optional.¹ With remote examination, retention is mandatory, because an auditor has no other way to judge whether the documents looked genuine at the time.

Form I-9 itself must be kept for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. Retained document copies follow the same schedule. Storage can be paper or electronic, but the system has to allow quick retrieval: if DHS, the Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, or the Department of Labor requests Forms I-9, you must produce them within three business days.⁶

Reverification and Rehires

Remote examination isn’t limited to brand-new hires. You can use it when reverifying an employee whose work authorization is expiring, and when rehiring someone by completing Supplement B. The steps stay the same: the employee sends copies, you run a live video review, and you check the alternative-procedure box in Supplement B instead of Section 2.¹ For reverification, you do not create a new E-Verify case.

When rehiring an employee within three years of their original Form I-9 completion date, you can either complete a new Form I-9 or update the existing one using Supplement B. If the original form is lost, incomplete, or was never properly finished, a new Form I-9 and a new E-Verify case are required. The same is true if the original E-Verify case never resulted in “Employment Authorized.”

If You’re Not on E-Verify

Non-E-Verify employers have no access to remote examination. I-9 documents must be physically examined in someone’s presence, but the HR team doesn’t have to travel to the employee. Instead, you can designate virtually anyone as an authorized representative to handle the physical inspection on your behalf.

An authorized representative can be a coworker, a notary public acting in a personal capacity, a friend of the employer, or a professional verification service. USCIS does not require any license, certification, or special training. The representative meets with the employee in person, examines the original documents, and completes Section 2 of Form I-9. Whoever examines the documents must be the same person who signs the form.³

The catch is liability. You remain fully responsible for any errors the representative makes on the form. If they record a document number wrong, miss an expiration date, or fail to spot a suspicious document, the penalties land on you.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Civil fines for I-9 paperwork violations, such as incomplete forms, missing signatures, or failure to retain document copies, run from roughly $288 to $2,861 per form after inflation adjustments. The exact figures are updated annually. Even technical errors on otherwise valid forms can draw fines during an audit.

Penalties climb sharply for employers who knowingly hire or continue to employ unauthorized workers. A first offense carries a civil fine between roughly $698 and $5,579 per worker, and repeat offenders face fines as high as $27,894 per worker. Employers engaged in a pattern or practice of hiring unauthorized workers face criminal prosecution: fines up to $3,000 per unauthorized worker and imprisonment of up to six months for the overall pattern.⁷

Organizations that abuse the alternative procedure, whether by skipping the live video examination, failing to retain document copies, or applying the process inconsistently in a discriminatory way, risk losing E-Verify good standing. That disqualifies them from future remote verification and may invite closer scrutiny from federal enforcement agencies.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Remote Examination of Documents (Optional Alternative Procedure to Physical Document Examination)
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Section 1, Employee Information and Attestation
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Section 2, Employer Review and Attestation
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 4.5 Remote Document Examination
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 11.4 Avoiding Discrimination in Recruiting, Hiring, and the Form I-9 Process
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 10.0 Retaining Form I-9
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1324a – Unlawful Employment of Aliens