The Verification Form: Who Signs, and by When
Two sections, two signatories, two deadlines, and a retention rule that runs from whichever of two events falls later. Almost every finding in a paperwork inspection traces back to one of those four numbers having been read wrong.
The rule in short
The employee completes and signs the first section of Form I-9 no later than the first day of employment, and never before accepting an offer. The employer examines the documents the employee chooses to present and completes the second section within three business days of the first day of employment, or by the first day where the engagement is shorter than that. The completed form is retained for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.
Form I-9 is completed once per hire and it is completed on a schedule. The rule is not that the form must exist. The rule is that each half of it must be signed by a specific person by a specific day, and an inspection tests the dates before it reads anything else.
The window opens at the offer
Nothing on the form may be completed before the employee has accepted a job offer. The form is not part of the screening process, and asking an applicant to complete it before hire is a violation on its own terms, independent of whatever the employer does with the answers.
Once an offer is accepted, the employee's section may be completed at any point up to and including the first day of employment. The first day of employment means the first day the employee works for pay, not the first day of orientation where orientation is unpaid, and not the day the offer letter was signed.
The employee's section, and the first day
The employee attests to a status, supplies the identifying information the form requires, and signs. The attestation is the employee's own; the employer does not choose the category and does not complete the section on the employee's behalf.
Where the employee used a preparer or a translator, that person completes and signs the supplement for preparers. Employers frequently have a human resources coordinator walk an employee through the form and then leave that supplement blank, which is a defect visible on the face of the document.
The employer's section, and the three days
The employer physically examines the documents the employee presents, records what was examined, and signs within three business days of the first day of employment. Where the engagement will last fewer than three business days, the employer's section is due on the first day.
Two constraints govern what the employer may examine. The employee chooses whether to present one document from the first list or one from each of the other two, and the employer may not indicate a preference. And the documents must reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting them, which is a face-value standard rather than an investigative one. The boundary between diligence and an unlawful demand is the subject of document abuse and unfair documentary practices, and it is narrower than most managers expect.
| Part of the form | Who completes it | When it is due | Most common defect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employee section | The employee, personally | No later than the first day of employment | Unsigned, or the status attestation left unmarked |
| Preparer and translator supplement | Anyone who assisted the employee | With the employee section | Left blank where assistance plainly occurred |
| Employer section | The employer or an authorized representative | Within three business days of the first day | Signed late, or a document recorded from the wrong list |
| Reverification and rehire supplement | The employer | On or before the expiration being reverified | Used on a document that never required reverification |
| Retention | The employer | Three years from hire or one year from separation, whichever is later | Purged on the wrong measure and unavailable at inspection |
Who may sign for the employer
The employer may designate anyone as an authorized representative to examine documents and complete its section: a manager at a remote site, a notary acting in a personal capacity, a staffing partner. There is no approval process and no list of eligible categories. What does not change is liability. An error made by the representative is the employer's error, and a representative who never saw the original documents has produced a false attestation in the employer's name.
This is why remote hiring is where the risk concentrates. A company that mails the form to a new hire's home and asks a family member to sign as representative has met the letter of the rule and created a document it cannot defend.
Three years after the date of hire, or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. For a long-tenured employee the second measure controls and the form is destroyed a year after separation. For a hire who leaves after four months the first measure controls and the form is kept for nearly three more years. Employers that purge on separation alone destroy forms they are required to produce, and the missing form is a substantive violation with no cure available.
Receipts, corrections and the things not to do
An employee whose document has been lost, stolen or damaged may present a receipt for the replacement, and the employer records the receipt and then examines the replacement document when it arrives, within the period the rule allows. A receipt for an application for an initial grant of authorization is not the same thing and is not acceptable.
Corrections are made openly. The person making the change draws a line through the incorrect entry, writes the correct information, and initials and dates the change. Nothing is erased, nothing is covered, and nothing is rewritten to look original. An employer that discovers a systemic problem should correct it uniformly across the whole file rather than selectively, because a selective correction is itself evidence. Where the scale of the problem is unclear, an internal review run with employment verification counsel before any correction is made keeps the review privileged and the corrections consistent.
What the form has to survive
The completed form is the evidence in two later processes. It is the document an inspector asks for, on the timetable described in the notice of inspection and the three days that follow. And it is the record that determines when a reverification obligation falls due, which is governed by rules that prohibit reverifying as often as they require it, set out in reverification and the documents that may not be demanded.
The organizing principle is the one that governs any file a regulator can demand on short notice, described in driver qualification files and what must be in them: one file per person, one index, one retention rule applied by a system rather than by memory.
Points to carry away
- The employee's section is due no later than the first day of employment and may not be completed before an offer is accepted.
- The employer's section is due within three business days of the first day of employment.
- Where employment will last fewer than three business days, the employer's section is due on the first day.
- The employee chooses which acceptable documents to present, and the employer may not specify.
- An authorized representative may complete the employer's section, but liability stays with the employer.
- The form is retained for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.
Questions readers ask
Can the form be completed before the employee's first day?
The employee's section can, once an offer has been accepted, and doing so is good practice for a start date that falls on a Friday. What cannot happen is completion before an offer, because the form is not a screening tool and using it that way is itself a violation. The employer's section may also be completed early, provided the documents have actually been examined. What may not happen is an employer's signature attesting to an examination that has not yet occurred.
What counts as a business day for the three-day count?
The employer's own business days, excluding days the business is not open. The count begins the day after employment starts, so a Monday start date makes the form due by Thursday for a company open Monday through Friday. Companies operating on unusual schedules should record the convention they use and apply it consistently, because an inspector comparing hire dates to signature dates will otherwise infer the standard week. Consistency is worth more here than any particular reading.
Does an existing employee need a new form after a promotion or transfer?
No. The obligation attaches to hire, not to a change in duties or location within the same employer. A promotion, a transfer between departments, a move to a different worksite of the same company and a change from part-time to full-time all leave the original form in place. A genuine break in employment followed by a rehire is different, and where the rehire falls within the permitted window the employer may update the existing form rather than complete a new one.
Sources
- Cornell Legal Information Institute — 8 CFR 274a.2, Verification of Identity and Employment AuthorizationThe completion deadlines, the retention rule, and the receipt provisions.
- Cornell Legal Information Institute — 8 U.S.C. 1324a, Unlawful Employment of AliensThe statutory verification requirement and the good faith compliance provision.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — I-9 CentralThe agency's operating guidance on completing and retaining the form.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — Handbook for Employers M-274Detailed treatment of authorized representatives, receipts, corrections and rehires.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — Form I-9 Acceptable DocumentsThe lists from which an employee chooses what to present.
- eCFR — 8 CFR Part 274a, Control of Employment of AliensThe regulatory part in current text, including the penalty provisions.
Lawwise is a publication, not a law firm. This article states general rules and cites its sources; it is not advice about any particular case, and the law differs by state and changes over time.
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