Free I-9 Form

Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, is a federal form U.S. employers use to verify the identity and employment authorization of employees hired to perform work for pay in the United States.

The form is completed by both the employee and the employer. The employee completes and signs Section 1, while the employer or an authorized representative completes Section 2 after examining acceptable identity and employment-authorization documents.

Employers must complete Form I-9 for employees regardless of citizenship or immigration status, including U.S. citizens. The completed form is not normally filed with USCIS, ICE, or another government agency. Instead, the employer retains it and must make it available for an authorized government inspection.

The current Form I-9 published by USCIS is edition 01/20/25, with an expiration date of 05/31/2027.

USCIS also permits employers to use the 08/01/23 edition displaying an expiration date of 05/31/2027. However, the 08/01/23 version displaying an expiration date of 07/31/2026 has expired and should no longer be used.

Do not confuse the two dates:

For new hires, downloading the current 01/20/25 edition directly from USCIS helps avoid accidentally using an expired copy stored in an older onboarding packet or HR system.

Employers generally must complete Form I-9 for every person hired to perform labor or services in the United States in return for wages or other remuneration after November 6, 1986.

This requirement applies regardless of whether the employee is:

Form I-9 verifies identity and employment authorization. Employers should not use the process to favor one citizenship or immigration category over another.

An employer generally does not complete Form I-9 for a properly classified independent contractor because the person is not the employer's employee.

Employees hired on or before November 6, 1986, who have continued in their employment are also generally outside the original I-9 requirement. Other exclusions may apply in specific circumstances.

Whether someone is an employee or independent contractor depends on the actual working relationship, not simply the title of an agreement. A document such as Loio's Independent Contractor Agreement can define the parties' service terms, but it does not determine worker classification by itself.

Form I-9 has two main completion deadlines.

An employee may complete Section 1 before starting work once the employer has made a job offer and the employee has accepted it. An employer should not require Form I-9 completion before an employment offer has been accepted.

For example, if an employee's first day of work for pay is Monday, Section 2 generally must be completed no later than Thursday.

If the employee is hired for fewer than three business days, Section 2 must be completed no later than the employee's first day of work for pay.

Missing the deadline does not justify changing the completion date later. Complete the missing Form I-9 as soon as possible and record the actual dates.

Employees must be allowed to choose which acceptable documents they present. They may provide either:

The current Form I-9 contains the official Lists of Acceptable Documents. Because document rules and automatic extensions can change, employers should use current USCIS guidance rather than create their own shortened list.

The employer or authorized representative generally examines acceptable original documents and determines whether they reasonably appear genuine and relate to the person presenting them.

One recognized List C document is an original or certified copy of a birth certificate issued by a state, county, municipal authority, or U.S. territory and bearing an official seal.

Employers should provide the official Lists of Acceptable Documents rather than require a specific document. For example, avoid instructions such as:

“Bring your passport.”
“Show me your green card.”
“Give me your work permit as well.”

If an employee presents sufficient acceptable documentation, the employer generally should not demand additional or different documents.

The Department of Justice's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section enforces the Immigration and Nationality Act's anti-discrimination provisions. Requesting specific, more, or different documents, or rejecting reasonably genuine-looking documents, may constitute an unfair documentary practice when the conduct is based on citizenship status or national origin.

Employers can therefore create compliance problems through discriminatory over-verification as well as by failing to complete employment verification properly.

Hiring an employee remotely does not eliminate the employer's I-9 obligations.

Employers generally have two options:

An employer may designate another person to complete Section 2 on its behalf. Federal I-9 rules do not generally require the representative to hold a particular professional license.

The authorized representative examines the employee's documents and completes and signs Section 2 for the employer.

This may be an HR professional, another company representative, or another individual selected by the employer. However, the employer remains responsible for violations connected with the representative's actions.

Give the representative clear instructions about document examination and Form I-9 completion rather than simply asking the person to “verify the employee.”

The DHS-authorized alternative procedure is available to qualifying employers that participate in E-Verify in good standing and satisfy the E-Verify requirements for the hiring sites where the procedure is used.

To use the procedure for a new hire, the employer generally must:

The employer must also make the retained document copies available during an authorized government inspection.

An ordinary video call or an emailed copy of an ID, by itself, does not satisfy the alternative procedure. Employers must meet all applicable eligibility, examination, documentation, retention, and E-Verify requirements.

No. Form I-9 does not require notarization.

An authorized representative completing Section 2 signs as the employer's representative, not as a notary performing a notarial act.

The issue can become more complicated when an employer asks a local notary to serve as its authorized representative because state law may restrict what that notary may do.

California treats Form I-9 as an immigration document for purposes of its restrictions on immigration-consultant services.

A California notary who is not otherwise legally qualified to provide the relevant immigration-document services generally may not complete Form I-9 for another person merely by acting in a non-notarial capacity.

California recognizes other legally authorized providers, including attorneys, federally authorized or accredited representatives, and registered and bonded immigration consultants, as applicable. A notary who separately holds a qualifying legal authorization should be evaluated under that authorization rather than solely under the person's status as a notary.

Employers using an authorized representative in California should therefore verify that the person is legally permitted to perform the service rather than assuming any notary may complete Section 2.

The current Form I-9 uses two supplements.

Reverification focuses on continuing employment authorization, not simply on documents reaching their expiration dates.

Employers generally must reverify when the employment authorization recorded on Form I-9 expires, unless an exception applies.

However:

Reverification may still be required for a lawful permanent resident who originally presented temporary evidence of permanent-resident status with a limited validity period, rather than a Permanent Resident Card or another document not subject to reverification.

Employers should avoid unnecessary reverification because treating workers differently based on citizenship or immigration status can raise discrimination concerns.

Keep each completed Form I-9 for:

three years after the employee's date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever date is later.

For a current employee, the employer generally retains Form I-9 throughout employment.

Employers may retain Forms I-9 on paper or in qualifying electronic systems. Paper forms may also be scanned and stored electronically, and the original paper form may generally be destroyed after it is securely stored in a compliant electronic system.

Electronic storage systems must satisfy applicable requirements concerning integrity, accuracy, security, indexing, retrieval, reproduction, and audit trails.

Scanning itself is therefore permitted. The important point is that simply placing scans in a general cloud folder does not, by itself, establish that the electronic storage system satisfies all DHS requirements.

The person responsible for a section should generally correct errors in that section.

For a paper Form I-9, corrections generally should be made by:

Do not erase the original information, use correction fluid, conceal the original entry, or backdate a correction.

For multiple or substantial errors, the appropriate section or a new Form I-9 may be completed and attached to the original, together with an explanation of why the correction was made.

Complete the current acceptable Form I-9 as soon as the missing record is discovered.

Do not backdate the form. Record the employee's actual first day of work for pay where required, but use the actual date on which the form and certifications are completed.

Employers should document the corrective action. Accurately recording what occurred is important; changing dates to make a late Form I-9 appear timely creates a false record rather than correcting the compliance problem.

ICE updated its Form I-9 Inspection guidance in March 2026. The updated fact sheet identifies a broader range of defects as substantive violations, while other defects remain classified as technical or procedural.

Employment-law analyses comparing the March 2026 fact sheet with earlier ICE guidance have identified changes involving issues such as:

These comparisons are analyses of the old and new guidance; ICE itself did not publish the list as a formal side-by-side comparison of newly reclassified violations.

Where ICE identifies a technical or procedural failure, federal law generally provides the employer at least 10 business days after notice to correct it. Substantive violations do not receive that same statutory correction period.

The distinction is therefore important: the issue is not simply whether an omission appears minor, but how the applicable enforcement guidance classifies it.

Current federal regulations provide civil penalties of $288 to $2,861 for I-9 paperwork violations for each individual with respect to whom a qualifying violation occurred. The applicable amount depends on the enforcement calculation and factors such as the employer's size, good faith, seriousness of the violation, whether the individual was unauthorized to work, and the employer's history of violations.

Multiple defects on a single employee's Form I-9 do not automatically mean that each individual field error produces a separate maximum statutory paperwork penalty.

Employers should therefore review Forms I-9 for completeness when they are created rather than assuming apparently minor omissions can always be corrected during an inspection.