Form I-9 (2026): Employment Eligibility Verification, Edition and Document Lists

“Use Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to verify the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must properly complete Form I-9 for every individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and aliens. Both employees and employers (or authorized representatives of the employer) must complete the form.”

“All employees can choose which acceptable documentation to present for Form I-9. Employers cannot ask employees for documentation to verify information in Section 1, or specify which acceptable documentation employees must present for Section 2 or Supplement B, Reverification and Rehire. Treating employees differently based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin may be illegal.”

“Employees must complete and sign Section 1 of Form I-9 no later than the first day of employment (i.e., the date the employee begins performing labor or services in the United States in return for wages or other remuneration). Employees may complete Section 1 before the first day of employment, but cannot complete the form before acceptance of an offer of employment.”

“Complete Section 2 within three business days after the employee's first day of employment.”

“If you hire an individual for less than three business days, complete Section 2 no later than the first day of employment.”

“For example, if an employee begins employment on Monday, you must review the employee's documentation and complete Section 2 on or before the Thursday of that week. However, if the individual will work for less than three business days, Section 2 must be completed no later than the first day of employment.”

“Have the employee complete Section 1 at the time of hire (by the first day the employee starts work for pay or other remuneration) by entering the correct information and signing and dating the form.”

“Within three business days of the date employment begins, you or your authorized representative must complete Section 2 by examining original, acceptable, and unexpired documentation, or an acceptable receipt, the employee presents (see Table 1: Special Form I-9 Situations) to determine if it reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the person presenting it. For example, if an employee begins employment on Monday, you must review the employee’s documentation and complete Section 2 on or before Thursday of that week. However, if you hire someone for less than three business days, you must complete Section 2 no later than the first day of employment.”

“You may terminate an employee who fails to present acceptable documentation (or an acceptable receipt for a document) within three business days after the date employment begins.”

“You may present either: 1.) one selection from List A or 2.) a combination of one selection from List B and one selection from List C.”

“An employer cannot specify which documentation you may present from the Lists of Acceptable Documents.”

“All documents containing an expiration date must be unexpired.
* Documents extended by the issuing authority are considered unexpired.”

“*Refer to the Employment Authorization Extensions page on I-9 Central for more information.”

“For examples, see Section 7 and Section 13 of the M-274 on uscis.gov/i-9-central.
The Form I-766, Employment Authorization Document, is a List A, Item Number 4. document, not a List C document.”

“Do not file Form I-9 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”

“Make their forms available for inspection if requested by authorized U.S. government officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Labor, or Department of Justice.”

“Federal regulations state you must retain a Form I-9 for each person you hire for three years after the date of hire, or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later.”

“To calculate how long to keep a former employee’s Form I-9:
If they worked for less than two years, retain their form for three years after the date you entered in the First Day of Employment field.
If they worked for more than two years, retain their form for one year after the date they stop working for you.”

“If you participate in E-Verify in good standing, you are qualified to remotely examine your employee’s documentation using a DHS-authorized alternative procedure at your E-Verify hiring sites.”

“If you choose to offer the alternative procedure to new employees at an E-Verify hiring site, you must do so consistently for all employees at that site. However, you may choose to offer the alternative procedure for remote hires only but continue to apply physical examination procedures to all employees who work onsite or in a hybrid capacity, so long as you do not adopt such a practice for a discriminatory purpose or treat employees differently based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin, such as by deciding that certain employees are not eligible for remote examination of their documentation.”

“Examine copies (front and back, if the document is two-sided) of Form I-9 documents or an acceptable receipt to ensure that the documentation presented reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the employee;
Conduct a live video interaction with the individual presenting the document(s) to ensure that the documentation reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the individual.
[…]
Retain a clear and legible copy of the documentation (front and back if the documentation is two-sided).”

“On the Form I-9 dated 08/01/2023 or 1/20/2025, check the box to indicate that you used an alternative procedure in the Additional Information field in Section 2.”

“Providing your 9-digit Social Security number in the Social Security number field is voluntary, unless your employer participates in E-Verify.”

“Page 3 contains Supplement A, Preparer and/or Translator Certification for Section 1. Employers must ensure that preparers or translators who assist an employee in completing Section 1 complete this page, then retain it with the employee’s Form I-9.”

“Page 4 contains Supplement B, Reverification and Rehire (formerly Section 3). Employers must complete and retain this page when an employee requires reverification of their employment authorization or, in some cases, employment authorization document, or if the employer chooses to document a rehire.”

“When reverification is required, you must reverify the employee by the earlier of the employment authorization expiration date stated in Section 1 (if any), or the expiration date of the List A or List C employment authorization documentation recorded in Section 2.”

“If you rehire an employee within three years from the date the employee's Form I-9 was first completed, you may complete the supplement and attach it to the employee's previously completed Form I-9.”

“Form I-9 is a fillable form, which means you can type your answers directly into the form, except for the signature blocks. Employers and employees using this fillable form must print and manually sign it rather than typing or electronically affixing a signature because this fillable form does not meet DHS standards for electronic Form I-9 generation, storage and retention systems.”

“Only employers located in Puerto Rico may complete the Spanish-language version of Form I-9 instead of the English-language version.”