Overview
Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, is the federal form used to document that an employer has verified the identity of a new employee and that employee’s authorization to work in the United States. It comes from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, and it is published and maintained by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The obligation is universal. Every employer in the United States completes a Form I-9 for every person hired after November 6, 1986, regardless of the employer’s size, industry, or location, and regardless of the employee’s citizenship.
The form is not filed with any agency. The employer completes it, retains it, and produces it if a federal agency asks to inspect it.
USCIS reissues the form periodically. Each edition carries an edition date and an expiration date printed on the form itself, and only the current edition may be used. The current version and its instructions are published by USCIS.
Who Needs One
An I-9 is required for employees. It is not required for independent contractors, unpaid volunteers, or people employed casually in a private home on a sporadic basis.
The distinction between an employee and an independent contractor is the one that causes trouble, because it is determined by the working relationship rather than by what the parties call it. Treating a worker as a contractor to avoid the I-9 does not remove the obligation if the relationship is actually employment.
Citizenship makes no difference to whether the form is required. U.S. citizens complete an I-9 exactly as everyone else does. What varies is which documents a person presents and whether the form will later need to be updated.
How the Form Is Structured
The form has two sections and two supplements, each completed by a different party at a different point.
| Section 1 | Completed by the employee. Name, address, date of birth, and an attestation of citizenship or immigration status, signed and dated by the employee. |
| Section 2 | Completed by the employer. Records the documents the employee presented, and attests that the employer examined them and that they appear genuine and to relate to the person presenting them. |
| Supplement A | Used when a preparer or translator helps the employee complete Section 1. That person identifies and certifies their role. |
| Supplement B | Used for reverification and for rehires. Replaces what older editions of the form called Section 3. |
The employer’s attestation in Section 2 is a statement about a reasonable examination, not a guarantee. The standard is whether the documents reasonably appear genuine and to relate to the employee, judged by an ordinary person rather than a document expert.
Timing
The sequence is fixed, and both ends of it matter.
| After an offer is accepted | The earliest point at which the I-9 process may begin. |
| By the first day of work for pay | The employee completes and signs Section 1. |
| Within 3 business days of the first day of work | The employer examines the documents and completes Section 2. |
Where a person is hired for fewer than 3 business days, Section 2 is completed by the first day of work.
The front end of that sequence is a legal boundary rather than a scheduling preference. Requiring proof of work authorization from someone who has not yet been offered a job, or asking about immigration status during the application process, can constitute discrimination under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That provision is enforced by the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section of the Department of Justice.
Acceptable Documents
The form’s instructions include Lists of Acceptable Documents, divided into three groups by what each document establishes.
| List A | Establishes both identity and work authorization. A U.S. passport, a permanent resident card, and an employment authorization document are examples. |
| List B | Establishes identity only. A state issued driver’s license or identification card is the common example. |
| List C | Establishes work authorization only. A Social Security card without work restrictions and certain birth certificates are examples. |
An employee presents either one document from List A, or one from List B together with one from List C. Both routes are equally valid and an employer treats them identically.
The choice of documents belongs to the employee. An employer may not specify which documents to present, may not request more or different documents than the form requires, and may not reject a document that reasonably appears genuine. Doing any of these is known as unfair documentary practices, or document abuse, and it is unlawful even when the employer believes it is being thorough.
Physical and Remote Examination
The default rule is physical examination. The employer, or an authorized representative acting for the employer, examines the original documents in the physical presence of the employee.
An alternative procedure permits remote examination over live video, along with a review of copies transmitted in advance. It is not open to every employer. Availability is limited to employers enrolled in E-Verify and in good standing, the employer must retain copies of the documents, and the procedure must be applied consistently rather than selected case by case for particular employees.
That consistency requirement carries the same weight as the rest of the rule. Offering remote examination to some new hires and requiring others to appear in person, where the distinction tracks national origin or citizenship status, is discriminatory regardless of the intent behind it.
Retention and Inspection
The employer retains each completed I-9 for 3 years after the date of hire, or 1 year after the date employment ends, whichever is later. For a long tenured employee the first figure governs; for a short tenure the second does.
Forms may be kept on paper, electronically, or on microfilm, provided the system used preserves their integrity and allows them to be produced on request. Storing I-9s separately from general personnel files is common practice, because it allows the forms to be produced for inspection without exposing unrelated records.
Inspection is carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which serves a Notice of Inspection and generally allows at least 3 business days before the forms must be produced. The Department of Justice and the Department of Labor also have inspection authority.
Civil penalties apply to substantive paperwork violations and, at a higher level, to knowingly hiring or continuing to employ someone not authorized to work. The amounts are set by regulation and adjusted annually for inflation, so current figures come from the enforcing agency rather than from secondary sources.
Reverification
Some employees present documents showing work authorization that expires. When that authorization lapses, the employer reverifies using Supplement B, no later than the date the authorization expires.
Several limits define the process:
- U.S. citizens and noncitizen nationals are never reverified. Their status does not expire.
- Lawful permanent residents are not reverified when a permanent resident card expires. The card expires; the status does not.
- List B identity documents are not reverified. An expired driver’s license does not trigger reverification, because identity is not what expires.
- The employee again chooses the document. Reverification carries the same restriction as the original examination, and the employer may not specify what to present.
Supplement B is also used when a person is rehired within 3 years of the date their original I-9 was completed, as an alternative to completing a new form.
What Form I-9 Does Not Do
- It does not query any database. The form records an examination of documents by a person. E-Verify is the separate system that checks information against government records.
- It does not report immigration status to anyone. The form is retained by the employer and produced only on official request.
- It does not check criminal history, credit, employment history, or anything else. Its scope is identity and work authorization.
- It does not authenticate documents forensically. The standard is a reasonable examination, not expert verification.
- It does not substitute for a background check, and a background check does not substitute for it. An employer running both completes both.
How It Relates to E-Verify
The two are frequently confused, and the relationship between them is one directional. Form I-9 is the foundation. E-Verify is an optional layer that sits on top of it.
Every employer completes an I-9. Some employers additionally enroll in E-Verify, which takes the information already recorded on the completed I-9 and compares it against records held by the Social Security Administration and DHS. E-Verify cannot run without an I-9, and it never replaces one.
Participation in E-Verify is voluntary under federal law for most employers, mandatory for certain federal contractors, and mandatory for some or all employers in a number of states. Our DHS E-Verify page covers how the system works, what the results mean, and how a mismatch is resolved.
Enrolling in E-Verify also changes what is available on the I-9 side, since remote document examination under the alternative procedure is limited to E-Verify participants.
How It Differs From a Background Check
Nearly every other search described on this site is a consumer report or part of one, which means the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act governs how it is requested, what it may contain, and what must happen before an employer acts on it. Our FCRA Overview covers that framework.
Form I-9 sits outside it. No consumer reporting agency compiles a file, no database is queried, and no report is produced. An employer looks at documents a person hands over and records what it saw. The governing law is immigration law, and the protections come from the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act rather than from the FCRA.
The timing runs opposite to a background check as well. A background check typically happens while someone is a candidate, often after a conditional offer. The I-9 process may not begin until an offer has been accepted, and it belongs to the first days of employment rather than to the hiring decision.
Where the two do meet is in document handling. An employer that collects identity documents for the I-9 and also runs a background check is holding sensitive personal information gathered under two separate legal regimes, each with its own retention rules and its own restrictions on use.