Hiring compliance is three deadline sets that candidates blend together: the two halves of Form I-9, the retention rule, and the FCRA's stand-alone disclosure.
Section 1 against Section 2
- The employee completes Section 1 in its entirety on the first day of employment.
- The employer or authorized representative completes Section 2 within three business days of the date employment begins.
Confusing the two sections' deadlines is the most common I-9 error. First day is Section 1; 3 business days is Section 2. The clock runs from the start of employment, not from the offer, and not from a payroll cycle. There is no 10-day period anywhere in the I-9 rules, and verification does not happen before hire.
If Section 2 was missed - documents collected Monday, nothing completed by Thursday - complete it now using the actual date of examination and retrain the hiring managers. Backdating falsifies a federal form, and leaving it undone is worse than a late completion.
Retention: 3 years against 1 year, whichever is later
Retain Form I-9 for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment is terminated, whichever is later.
Flipping "later" to "earlier" licenses premature destruction, and keeping only one prong does the same. Work the example: hired January 10, 2023, terminated March 1, 2024.
- Three years after hire: January 10, 2026
- One year after termination: March 1, 2025
- Later of the two: January 10, 2026
E-Verify
- The alternative procedure for remote document examination is available only to employers enrolled in E-Verify in good standing, and also requires front-and-back copies of the documents plus a live video interaction with the person presenting them. No headcount condition, no field-office approval.
- An Executive Order and a subsequent Federal Acquisition Regulation rule require federal contractors to use E-Verify for employees working under covered federal contracts.
FCRA
Before obtaining a consumer report for employment purposes, give a written, stand-alone disclosure. It cannot sit in the employment application, a handbook provision, or a general web posting.