What Is I-9 Verification? Documents, Deadlines, and Penalties

I-9 verification is the federal process every U.S. employer uses to confirm that a new hire is who they say they are and is legally allowed to work in the country. It applies to every employee hired for pay, citizen or not, and it runs on a tight timeline that begins the day someone starts work. Skip it, botch it, or run it in a way that discriminates, and the fines start at $288 per form and climb from there.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Penalties

Who Has to Complete a Form I-9

Every employer in the United States must complete a Form I-9 for each person they hire for paid work, including U.S. citizens.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification A handful of situations are outside the rule:

  • Independent contractors. The contractor’s own business handles verification for its own employees.
  • Casual domestic workers doing sporadic, irregular household work in a private home.
  • Employees performing all their work outside the United States and its territories.
  • Workers supplied through a staffing agency, whose I-9 is completed by the agency.

Self-employed people don’t complete a Form I-9 on themselves unless they’re employed by a separate business entity such as a corporation.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 2.0 Who Must Complete Form I-9

What Documents Count

Form I-9 works from three lists of acceptable documents printed on the form itself.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 Acceptable Documents An employee satisfies the requirement one of two ways: one document from List A, or one from List B plus one from List C.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 – Employment Eligibility Verification

  • List A proves both identity and work authorization. A U.S. passport, a Permanent Resident Card, or an Employment Authorization Document all qualify on their own.
  • List B proves identity only. A state driver’s license, state-issued ID, or school ID with a photograph are typical examples.
  • List C proves work authorization only. An unrestricted Social Security card and a U.S. birth certificate are the most common.

Not every Social Security card counts. Cards printed with notations such as “NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT,” “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH INS AUTHORIZATION,” or “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION” are not acceptable List C documents.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 13.3 List C Documents

Section 1 asks for a Social Security number, but supplying it is voluntary for most employees. It becomes mandatory when the employer participates in E-Verify, since E-Verify checks that number against federal databases.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification

The Timeline You Cannot Miss

The employee completes Section 1 no later than their first day of work for pay. They can do it any time after accepting the offer, but not before an offer has been made, and an employer cannot use Section 1 as a screening tool.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 3.0 Completing Section 1

The employer then has three business days from the employee’s start date to examine the documents and complete Section 2.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 – Employment Eligibility Verification The person completing Section 2 must look at the original documents, decide they reasonably appear genuine and relate to the person presenting them, and sign under penalty of perjury. If the job itself will last fewer than three days, both sections must be finished on the first day.

Who Can Review the Documents

Employers aren’t required to review documents personally. Any employer can designate an authorized representative to handle Section 2. That representative can be an HR staffer, a supervisor, a notary public acting in a personal capacity, a staffing agency, or essentially anyone the employer picks. No special license, certification, or written agreement is required.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Section 2, Employer Review and Attestation Whoever examines the documents must be the same person who signs. The employer stays legally on the hook for any mistakes the representative makes, and employees cannot serve as their own representative.

What Employers Cannot Do During Verification

The discrimination trap in this process is real. Federal law under 8 U.S.C. ยง 1324b makes it an unfair immigration-related employment practice to demand more or different documents than the form requires, or to reject documents that appear genuine on their face, when done with discriminatory intent.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1324b – Unfair Immigration-Related Employment Practices

The employee chooses which acceptable documents to present. If someone shows a valid driver’s license and an unrestricted Social Security card, the employer must accept them; asking instead for a passport or a green card crosses the line. Employers cannot request extra documents beyond what the form requires, refuse a document because it has a future expiration date, or single out certain employees for particular ID based on how they look or sound.

Remote Document Examination

Employers who participate in E-Verify in good standing can use a DHS-authorized alternative procedure to examine documents remotely instead of in person.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Remote Examination of Documents It’s the only legally approved way to skip the in-person review. The steps:

  1. The employee transmits clear front-and-back copies of their documents to the employer electronically.
  2. The employer holds a live video interaction in which the employee holds up the same physical documents, and the employer checks them against the copies.
  3. The employer keeps legible copies of the documents.

Employers who offer this option at a hiring site generally must offer it consistently to everyone at that site. They can limit it to fully remote hires and keep in-person examination for onsite and hybrid workers, as long as the distinction isn’t based on citizenship, immigration status, or national origin.11U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 4.5 Remote Document Examination

E-Verify Is Separate

E-Verify is an internet-based system that compares the information from a completed Form I-9 against records held by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.12E-Verify. What Is E-Verify It doesn’t replace Form I-9. It runs after the form is completed as an additional layer. For most private employers it’s voluntary. Federal contractors and subcontractors covered by the FAR E-Verify clause must use it,13E-Verify. Federal Contractors and a majority of states impose their own E-Verify mandates on some or all employers.

Most queries come back “Employment Authorized” within seconds. When the system can’t confirm eligibility, it issues a Tentative Nonconfirmation, sometimes called a mismatch. That doesn’t mean the employee is unauthorized; it means the records don’t line up. The employee has 10 federal government working days to decide whether to contest the mismatch and contact the relevant agency.14E-Verify. Tentative Nonconfirmations (Mismatches) Employers cannot fire, suspend, or take any other adverse action against the employee while a Tentative Nonconfirmation is being worked through.15U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 1.2 E-Verify

Reverifying Expiring Work Authorization

Some employees have work authorization that expires, such as certain employment authorization documents or visa-based permits. Before it lapses, the employer must reverify by completing Supplement B of Form I-9 (formerly Section 3). The employee presents a new unexpired document from List A or List C, and the employer records the document information, signs, and dates the supplement.16U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Supplement B, Reverification and Rehires

Reverification is never required for U.S. citizens or noncitizen nationals. It’s also never triggered by expiration of a U.S. passport, U.S. passport card, Permanent Resident Card, or any List B identity document.17U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 6.0 Completing Supplement B Asking a U.S. citizen to reverify when their passport expires is an error, and it can amount to discrimination.

Supplement B also handles rehires. If an employee is rehired within three years of the original I-9’s completion date, the employer can update Supplement B rather than start a new form.

Receipts for Lost or Damaged Documents

If an employee has applied to replace a lost, stolen, or damaged document, they can present the receipt as a temporary substitute. The receipt is valid for 90 days from the date of hire, and by the end of that window the employee must present either the actual replacement or another acceptable document from the relevant list.18U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 4.4 Acceptable Receipts Receipts can’t be accepted if the job will last fewer than three business days, and a second receipt can’t be accepted once the first expires.

Fixing Errors on a Completed Form

Mistakes happen constantly, and the fix method is the same for every section: draw a line through the wrong information, write in the correction, and initial and date it. No correction fluid, no erasures, no backdating.19U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 9.0 Correcting Errors or Missing Information on Form I-9 Only the employee or their preparer or translator can correct Section 1. Only the employer or authorized representative can correct Section 2 and Supplement B.

How Long to Keep the Forms

Federal regulations require employers to keep each Form I-9 for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.20eCFR. 8 CFR 274a.2 – Verification of Identity and Employment Authorization For someone who works less than two years, the three-year-from-hire rule controls. For longer tenures, the one-year-after-termination date usually reaches further. Destroying a form before its retention period ends is itself a violation.21U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Handbook for Employers M-274 – 10.0 Retaining Form I-9

What Violations Cost

Paperwork violations, meaning missing forms, incomplete fields, and late completion, currently carry civil fines from $288 to $2,861 per form, as published in the Federal Register in January 2025.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Penalties The amounts adjust annually for inflation.

Knowingly hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized workers falls under a separate, steeper penalty schedule. First offenses start in the hundreds of dollars per worker and escalate quickly for repeat violations, with the ceiling reaching well into five figures per worker. A pattern or practice of knowing violations can bring criminal prosecution, not just fines.22Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1324a – Unlawful Employment of Aliens ICE auditors can demand every Form I-9 on file with minimal notice, so compliance gaps are best closed before an audit, not during one.