Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification)

What It Means

Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, was created by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and is required for every person hired in the U.S. for employment, regardless of citizenship status. Employers must complete Section 1 (employee attestation of citizenship or immigration status) by the employee's first day of work and Section 2 (employer review of identity and work authorization documents) within 3 business days of the start date. Acceptable documents are grouped into three lists: List A (documents establishing both identity and work authorization, including U.S. passport, permanent resident card I-551, and unexpired EAD I-766), List B (identity only, such as a state driver's license), and List C (work authorization only, such as an unrestricted Social Security card or birth certificate). Employers are prohibited from specifying which documents the employee must present (document abuse), from requiring more or different documents than the I-9 rules demand, or from discriminating based on citizenship status or national origin under INA section 274B. Employers must retain completed I-9s for the later of 3 years after hire or 1 year after termination, and must produce them within 3 business days of an ICE or DOJ Notice of Inspection. Civil penalties for I-9 paperwork violations range from roughly $281 to $2,789 per form, and penalties for knowing-hire or continuing-to-employ violations can reach over $27,000 per worker for repeat offenders, inflation-adjusted annually. A revised Form I-9 was released in August 2023 along with an optional alternative verification procedure for E-Verify-enrolled employers that allows remote document examination, a permanent replacement for the temporary COVID-era flexibilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Terms