Employers are required to timely and properly complete and retain Form I-9 for each employee they hire. The first day of employment means the first day an employee works in exchange for wages or other remuneration. These Form I-9 requirements also apply to E-Verify employers. With the goal of ensuring a legal workforce, employers enrolled in E Verify have chosen to take the additional step of electronically confirming that information their employees provide match government records.
Newly hired employees must complete Section 1 of Form I-9 in its entirety on the first day of employment. They may complete Section 1 before this date, but only after acceptance of an offer of employment. Under general Form I-9 practice, employees can voluntarily provide their Social Security numbers (SSNs) on Form I-9. However, because SSNs are required for employers to create E-Verify cases, all employees whose employment eligibility will be verified in E-Verify must provide their SSNs.
Employers must complete Section 2 of Form I-9 in its entirety within three days of the employee’s date of hire. To complete Section 2, physically examine the documents presented by the employee in-person or remotely examine using an alternative procedure authorized by the Secretary of Homeland Security to verify the employee’s identity and employment authorization. Do not specify which documents from the “Lists of Acceptable Documents” on Form I-9 the employee must present. Employers may reject a document if it does not reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting it.