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Form I-9, officially known as the Employment Eligibility Verification form, is a federal requirement issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). As an employer, you must use it to verify the identity and employment authorization of every individual you hire to work in the United States. As an employer, you’re required to complete and retain Form I-9 for each employee hired on or after November 6, 1986. Although the form is federally mandated, some states impose additional requirements related to employment eligibility verification—such as participation in the federal E-Verify program.

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Form Breakdown

Form I-9 includes five main components, as outlined in Section 1.0 of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Handbook for Employers M-274:
  1. Section 1: Employee Information and Attestation
    • Your employee must complete and sign this section on or before their first day of work. It captures basic personal details and their attestation of authorization to work in the United States.
  2. Section 2: Employer Review and Verification
    • The employer—or an authorized representative—must complete this section within three business days of the employee’s start date. It involves reviewing original documents to confirm the employee’s identity and work authorization.
  3. Lists of Acceptable Documents
    • You must make this list available to all employees completing Form I-9. However, you’re not required to retain this page with the form.
  4. Supplement A, Preparer and/or Translator Certification for Section 1
    • If someone assists the employee in completing Section 1, they must fill out this supplement. If no assistance is needed, you don’t need to print or retain this page.
  5. Supplement B, Reverification and Rehire (formerly Section 3)
    • Complete this supplement if you need to reverify an employee’s work authorization or choose to rehire them without completing a new Form I-9. You only need to print this page when either scenario applies.

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Form Submission

Form I-9 is not submitted to any government agency. Instead, employers are responsible for retaining each completed Form I-9. Symmetry returns completed Forms I-9 in an encoded zip file in the postback. Learn more about how to retrieve a completed Form I-9 here: Retrieve an I-9 Submission. As an employer, you’re required to keep these forms on file for a specific period, depending on the employee’s hire and termination dates. You are responsible for storing Forms I-9. Learn more here: I-9 Document Retention & Storage Requirements. This retention requirement ensures that your Form I-9 are available for inspection by authorized government officials—such as representatives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or the Department of Labor (DOL)—in the event of an audit or investigation. Read more about Symmetry’s audit logs here: Audit Events.