I-9 employment eligibility verification is the process every US employer uses to confirm that a new hire is who they say they are and is legally allowed to work in the United States. It is done on Form I-9 from the federal government, and it applies to every employee, citizen or not, hired to work in the US. This guide explains what it is, who has to do it, and how it actually works, in plain English.
1 What Form I-9 is
Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, comes from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It records two things: the employee’s identity, and their authorization to work in the United States. The current edition is dated 01/20/2025 and expires 05/31/2027, shown in the corners of the form (OMB No. 1615-0047).
It is not a background check, a credit check, or a tax form. It is a standalone federal requirement that exists only to confirm work authorization.
We act as your authorized representative and complete Section 2 in person anywhere in the five boroughs, which works for any employer. If your company is enrolled in E-Verify, we can also complete it by live video nationwide. Same-day signed PDF, from $65 per employee.
2 Who has to complete it
Almost everyone. Employers must complete an I-9 for every person they hire to perform labor or services in the US, including US citizens. Employees must complete their part and present acceptable documents. The main exceptions are independent contractors and certain casual domestic workers.
3 The two sections and the 3-day rule
The form has two main parts:
- Section 1 is completed by the employee, no later than their first day of employment. They fill in their information and attest to their work-authorized status.
- Section 2 is completed by the employer, who examines the employee’s documents and records them within three business days of the employee’s first day of work. This is the well-known 3-day rule.
4 What documents you show
The employee chooses which acceptable documents to present. They give either one document from List A, or one from List B plus one from List C.
| List | Proves | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| List A | Identity AND work authorization | US passport, Permanent Resident Card, some EADs |
| List B | Identity only | Driver license, state ID |
| List C | Work authorization only | Social Security card, birth certificate |
The employer cannot tell the employee which documents to bring. That choice belongs to the employee, and dictating it can be a form of discrimination.
5 I-9 vs E-Verify
People mix these up constantly. Form I-9 is required for everyone. E-Verify is a separate, mostly voluntary online system that compares the I-9 information against government records. You complete the I-9 first; E-Verify is an extra step some employers use or are required to use. They are related but not the same thing.
6 Common mistakes and penalties
I-9 errors are one of the most common and most expensive compliance problems for small businesses. Frequent slip-ups:
- Missing the three-business-day deadline for Section 2
- Blank fields, missing signatures, or wrong dates
- Telling the employee which documents to present
- Not reverifying work authorization when it expires
- Using an outdated version of the form
Fines for I-9 paperwork violations are charged per form and add up fast across a workforce, so accuracy matters even when everyone involved is authorized to work.
Want your I-9s handled correctly the first time?
We verify employee documents, complete Section 2 on time, and keep you compliant, in person or online across NYC.
It means confirming, on Form I-9, that a new employee is who they claim to be and is legally authorized to work in the US.
Is Form I-9 required for US citizens?
Yes. Every employee hired to work in the US completes an I-9, citizens included.
Who fills out the I-9, the employer or employee?
Both. The employee completes Section 1, and the employer completes Section 2 after examining the documents.
Is I-9 the same as E-Verify?
No. The I-9 is the required paper or electronic form. E-Verify is a separate online check some employers use on top of it.
Next reads: the employer step-by-step guide and online and remote I-9 verification.
More on I-9 verification: I-9 verification in NYC, what documents you need for I-9, and who can verify an I-9.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Federal I-9 requirements and form versions change over time. Confirm current rules with USCIS at uscis.gov/i-9 or a qualified professional.
7 Who does not need one
The rule is every employee hired to work in the United States, but a few categories genuinely fall outside it.
Independent contractors are not employees, so no I-9. Be careful here, because misclassifying an employee as a contractor does not remove the obligation; it adds a second problem on top of it.
Also outside: people hired before November 7, 1986, casual domestic help in a private home that is sporadic and irregular, and workers supplied by a staffing agency, where the agency that employs them completes the form rather than the business where they work.
Everyone else, citizen or not, gets an I-9. There is no exemption for a United States citizen, and skipping it for citizens is itself a discriminatory pattern.
8 How long to keep it, and where
The retention rule is the one employers most often get wrong in the safe direction, by keeping everything forever.
You keep a completed I-9 for three years after the date of hire, or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. That is the standard, and it means the required retention date is calculable the day somebody leaves.
Store I-9s separately from personnel files. Not because it is tidier, but because an audit gives ICE access to the I-9s, and separate storage means you are not handing over the entire personnel record. Keeping them in one binder, or one folder, with a purge date noted on each is the whole system.
9 What an inspection actually looks like
It starts with a Notice of Inspection, and the statute gives an employer three business days to produce the forms. Three days is not enough time to fix anything, which is the point.
That is why the state of your files today is the only thing that matters. An audit does not reward good intentions or a plan to tidy up next quarter.
10 Technical against substantive, and why 2026 changed things
Errors were historically split into two buckets. Technical violations came with a ten day window to correct them. Substantive violations did not, and carried a fine.
In March 2026 ICE reissued its inspection guidance and moved more than ten error categories out of technical and into substantive. Missing dates, a missing date of birth and use of the Spanish language form outside Puerto Rico are among them. Substantive violations currently run from roughly $288 to $2,861 per form, assessed per form rather than per audit.
The arithmetic is what should concentrate the mind. A small employer with a couple of hundred imperfect forms is no longer looking at a correction letter. Errors that were merely untidy last year are now priced.
11 Audit yourself before somebody else does
Pull your files and check the boring things: every Section 1 signed and dated, every Section 2 completed within three business days of the start date, the current form edition in use, Supplement A present wherever anybody assisted, and no forms retained past their purge date.
Correct errors properly rather than quietly. Do not use correction fluid, do not overwrite, and do not backdate anything. Draw a single line through the error, enter the correct information, then initial and date the change with the real date. An honest late correction is defensible. A forged one is not.
Where you would rather have it done right the first time, we complete Section 2 as your authorized representative and return a signed form the same day.
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Also worth reading: E-Verify vs Form I-9, I-9 audits and ICE Notices of Inspection, reverification and Supplement B, and the three-day rule.