I-9 Argument

Crout · March 2005

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-02-05 AT 10:01AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Could one of you folks settle an argument about the I-9? One of our people says that ALL I-9's can be pulled out of the file and discarded 3 years from the date of hire. I counter that it's 3 years after date of hire OR 1 year after termination, whichever is later, which in effect means that we must keep I-9's on ALL current employees, regardless of date of hire. Thanks very much.

hrbanker · March 2005

Crout, you are correct. The instructions on the I-9 have been rewritten to make it clear that they must be kept on all current employees.

Several years ago, the form stated that they had to be kept 3 years.

flaroyale · March 2005

You are correct and here is the web site which you can use to prove it.

[url]http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/faqeev.htm[/url]

Don D · March 2005

My argument has been and always will be that it is far too labor intensive to even consider discarding I-9 forms, no matter how old they are. If you look around you will find thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of things you could discard to make more room. Why fret over managing this simple thin sheet of paper. The time you will spend implementing and maintaining the I-9 destruction program will never pay a return.

Crout · March 2005

I agree completely. Thanks to you all. I will split my million dollar winnings with you as soon as I collect it from my colleague.

mushroomHR · March 2005

Here's what you do: Take a three-ring binder. Divide the binder into five sections. Section 1 tab "Current": Current employees' I-9 forms. Section 2 tab "This Year": I-9 forms for those who separated from the payroll this year. Section 3 tab "Last Year": I-9 forms for those who separated from the payroll last year. Section 4 tab "Two Years": I-9 forms for those who separated from the payroll two years ago. Section 5 tab "Expired": I-9 forms that are expired. At the beginning of the year, go to Section 5 and throw those all away. Then move the I-9s from section 4 to section 5, section 3 to 4 and section 2 to 3. I've done this for many years and it's a very easy way to maintain your I-9s.

njjel · March 2005

Don - I hear ya but one of the reasons that I DO discard them when we can is that if we are ever audited and errors were made on them (even ever so innocently) we could be fined. I try to keep our exposure down as much as I can in every area. Of course I make it a point to do the I-9 correctly from the get-go so that doesn't happen, but you never know what one may overlook and think they've done it correctly (even if that person is me). :-)

I-9 Argument

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