The Small-Business Owner's I-9 Hiring Checklist, Line by Line

You did it. After years of 5 a.m. alarms, a second mortgage and a lot of hope, your first hire is starting on Monday. You have a handshake, an offer letter and a nervous smile. What you may not have is any idea that Washington has a form waiting for that person, and a second form waiting for you, and a deadline attached to each. Nobody gives a medal for paperwork, but the government does hand out fines for it, and fines for paperwork mistakes land hardest on the people who can least afford a lawyer.

I am not here to scold you about the form. I think the paperwork burden on small business is real and often unreasonable, and I have said so in Regulation protects us, so why count the cost? Because someone pays it. But the I-9 is the law, it applies to every employer in the country, and it is easier to get right than to explain after a bad inspection. Here is the checklist, by stage, with the reason behind each item so you can remember it.

A note on what this is. This is a general guide, not legal advice, and the form and its instructions change. Always use the current edition of the Form I-9 and its instructions from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, and check the form's own expiration date before you use it.

What the form is and who it covers

The Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, comes from the 1986 immigration law. Its purpose is to document that each new employee is who they say they are and is authorized to work in the United States. You complete one for every new employee, including U.S. citizens. That surprises many owners, but it is the rule: the form is not an immigration test aimed at certain people. It is a paperwork requirement for every employee, which is part of what keeps it fair.

It does not apply to independent contractors. It does apply to employees, including part-time and seasonal workers. You do not file the form with the government. You keep it, and you show it if you are inspected.

Stage one: before the first day

• Read the current form and instructions. The reason: using an outdated edition is one of the most common errors, and it can be treated as a violation.
• Decide who in your business completes the form. The reason: an owner who delegates it to a busy manager without training risks mistakes. Pick one person, train them, and give them a backup.
• Do not ask for documents before you make an offer. The reason: the form is completed after the offer is accepted. Asking applicants for papers early can look like screening, and it invites discrimination claims.
• Tell the new hire what to bring. The reason: the employee gets to choose which acceptable documents to show, and you can tell them what the lists contain, but you cannot demand particular ones. More on that below.

Stage two: Section 1, by the employee's first day

Section 1 belongs to the employee. The employee fills it in no later than the first day of employment, meaning the first day they work for pay.

• Make sure the employee completes Section 1 themselves. The reason: it is the employee's attestation, made under penalty of perjury, and you are not supposed to fill it in for them. If someone helps (a translator or preparer), that person completes the separate section for it.
• Check that every required field is complete. The reason: blank fields are the single most common error found in audits. The employee provides a name, address, date of birth, and attests to a status: a citizen of the United States, a noncitizen national, a lawful permanent resident, or a noncitizen authorized to work, with the relevant dates or numbers.
• Confirm the employee signed and dated it. The reason: an unsigned Section 1 is not a valid attestation.
• Do not ask about status or tell the employee which box to check. The reason: it is the employee's declaration, and steering it is a form of interference.
• Treat the Social Security number as optional unless you use E-Verify. The reason: employers are not generally permitted to require it on the form unless they participate in E-Verify, which I describe in E-Verify Explained, the Free Federal Check Most Employers Skip.

Stage three: Section 2, within three business days

Section 2 belongs to you. You must complete it within three business days after the employee's first day of work. If the employee will work less than three business days, you complete it by the end of the first day.

Here is the arithmetic, so there is no confusion. Say the employee starts on a Monday. Day one of the three is Tuesday, day two is Wednesday, and day three is Thursday. Section 2 is due by the end of Thursday. If the employee starts on a Thursday and your business is open Monday through Friday, the three business days are Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and Section 2 is due by Tuesday. If your business is open on Saturdays, Saturday counts as a business day for you, so confirm which days your business is open.

• Examine the original documents, in person. The reason: the law requires you to physically examine the documents the employee presents, and the examination happens in the employee's presence. There are limited alternative procedures for some employers, so check the current USCIS instructions before you use anything other than the standard in-person examination.
• Check that the documents look genuine and relate to the person. The reason: the legal standard is that they reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee. You are not asked to be a forensic expert, and you should not reject a document because you have a hunch about the person.
• Record the document title, issuing authority, number and expiration date exactly as shown. The reason: this is what an inspector compares against the form. Typing the wrong number is an error even if the document is fine.
• Record the first day of employment, then sign and date. The reason: the signature certifies that you examined the documents and that, to the best of your knowledge, the employee is authorized to work.

The documents: who chooses

The employee chooses which documents to present from the lists on the form. This is where owners most often go wrong, so read this carefully.

1. One document from List A. List A documents prove both identity and work authorization. Examples include a U.S. passport and a permanent resident card.
2. Or two documents, one from List B and one from List C. List B documents prove identity, such as a driver's license or a state-issued identification card with a photograph. List C documents prove work authorization, such as an unrestricted Social Security card or a certified birth certificate issued in the United States.

The employee decides. You may not require a specific document, demand a particular combination, or ask for more documents than the form requires. The reason is not just fairness. It is the law, and I turn to it next.

The anti-discrimination rule

The same immigration law that requires the I-9 also forbids discrimination in how you handle it. Section 274B of the Immigration and Nationality Act, codified at 8 U.S.C. 1324b, prohibits what the law calls "unfair documentary practices," such as asking for more or different documents than required, or refusing to accept valid documents that reasonably appear to be genuine, when done with the intent to discriminate.

Section 274B also prohibits discrimination in hiring and firing based on citizenship status and national origin. Coverage depends on your size. The citizenship-status protection applies to employers with four or more employees. For national origin, section 274B covers employers with four to fourteen employees, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act covers employers with fifteen or more. Check with the Justice Department's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section if you are uncertain.

• Treat everyone the same. The reason: if you ask for extra proof from workers who look or sound foreign, you have created a legal problem even if your motive was caution.
• Accept any valid choice. The reason: an employee who presents a valid List A document has satisfied the requirement.
• Never ask what they "really" are. The reason: your job is to examine what the employee shows you, not to investigate.

Stage four: copies, storage and retention

• Decide whether to copy documents, and then be consistent. The reason: making copies is optional, but if you copy documents for one employee, you should do it for all. Copies must be kept with the form.
• Store the forms in a safe, organized place. The reason: you can keep them on paper, electronically, or in a combination, as long as you can produce them. Keep them separate from personnel files, so an inspector does not see unrelated private information.
• Keep each form for the required period. The reason: you must retain it for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.

Here is how that works with real dates, using hypotheticals. Suppose you hired someone on March 3, 2026 and they quit on November 20, 2026. Three years after hire is March 3, 2029. One year after termination is November 20, 2027. The later date is March 3, 2029, so you keep the form until then. Now suppose you hired someone on January 10, 2026 and they stayed until January 10, 2032. Three years after hire is January 10, 2029. One year after termination is January 10, 2033. The later date is January 10, 2033.

• Do not shred early. The reason: destroying a form too soon is itself a violation.

Stage five: reverification and rehires

• Track expiration dates for employees with temporary work authorization. The reason: if an employee's work authorization expires, you must reverify in Section 3 on or before the expiration date. Put a calendar alert on it.
• Do not reverify when it is not required. The reason: citizens and permanent residents do not need to be reverified, and demanding it from them is the sort of thing that draws a discrimination complaint.
• Handle rehires carefully. The reason: if you rehire someone within three years of the original I-9, you may be able to use Section 3 of the original form instead of starting over. Read the instructions on this point.

Stage six: inspections and penalties

• Know what an inspection looks like. The reason: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Justice Department or the Labor Department can inspect your forms after giving you at least three business days' notice. Having them organized is half the battle.
• Know the penalty categories. The reason: paperwork violations carry civil fines per form, knowingly hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized workers carries heavier fines, and a pattern or practice of knowing violations can bring criminal penalties. The dollar amounts are adjusted for inflation, so look up the current range on the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department websites rather than trusting a number from a blog.
• Correct errors the right way. The reason: if you find a mistake, do not backdate or white-out. Draw a line through it, enter the correct information, and initial and date the correction, following the current instructions.

One hire from offer to filing cabinet (a hypothetical)

Here is the whole sequence for an imaginary bakery owner and an imaginary new baker, so you can see the stages in order. The offer is accepted on a Wednesday. The owner emails the baker a note saying that on the first day she should bring either one document from List A or one from List B and one from List C, and attaches the lists from the form's instructions without recommending a choice.

The baker starts the following Monday. Before her shift, she completes and signs Section 1 at the front counter. That meets the first-day deadline. On Tuesday morning the owner examines her original driver's license and her original Social Security card, in person, records the title, issuing authority, number and expiration date of each, enters Monday as the first day of employment, and signs and dates Section 2. That is a day after the start, well inside the Thursday deadline. The owner files the form in a binder labeled for I-9 forms, not in the baker's personnel folder, and puts a calendar note three years out.

Nothing about this took more than a few minutes. What protects the owner is not cleverness but habit: same steps, same order, every hire, and the same courtesy to every employee regardless of accent, name or appearance. The owners who get into trouble are rarely the ones who set out to break the law. They are the ones who never set up a routine and then have to reconstruct three years of hires after an inspection notice arrives.

The seven most common mistakes

1. Using an outdated edition of the form.
2. Missing or incomplete fields in Section 1.
3. Section 2 completed late, or not at all.
4. Document information recorded incorrectly.
5. Asking for specific documents or extra documents.
6. Throwing forms away early.
7. Reverifying employees who should not be reverified, or forgetting to reverify those who should.

The cost of getting this right is a few minutes per hire and a good filing habit. If you want the bigger picture on what comes after the first hire, see the new employer's checklist for the first year of payroll and taxes, and for how to push back when a federal rule makes no sense, see how a small business owner can fight a federal rule before it is final.

The bottom line

• Complete an I-9 for every employee, citizens included. Section 1 by the employee's first day, Section 2 by you within three business days.
• Let the employee choose: one List A document, or one List B and one List C. Never demand particular papers.
• Keep each form three years after hire or one year after the employee leaves, whichever is later, and do the date math before you throw anything away.
• Treat everyone the same under section 274B, and do not ask for extra proof from anyone.
• Download the current form and instructions from USCIS before you start, and look up the current penalty ranges rather than guessing.