Required Documentation

The I-9 is a federally required form you must complete to verify that you are eligible to work in the U.S. Your employer must have this document completed to formally hire you. After you complete page 1 and provide the employer with the required documents, they will complete page 2 to validate your identity and authorization to work. You must sign and date the form, otherwise it is invalid. 

Study the I-9 form pdf below to familiarize yourself with the form and start to gather your documents to prepare for employment. A list of the acceptable documents is on page 3. The list of acceptable documents can also be found below. You do not have to print or fill out the form, this exercise is for you to know what to expect for required work documents. 

Helpful tip: Start a binder now with all your important papers and store them in a safe place for future use. You will need these documents for many things. 

You must have one document from List A OR you can use one document from List B AND one document from List C. 

LIST A: Documents That Establish Both Identity and Employment Authorization 

All documents must be unexpired. 

• U.S. passport or U.S. passport card 
• Form I-551, Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card (this is commonly called a Green Card.) See Section 6.1, Lawful Permanent Residents for when a Permanent Resident Card is considered unexpired past the “Card Expires” date. 
• Foreign passport that contains a temporary I-551 stamp or temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa (MRIV) 
• Form I-766, Employment Authorization Document (EAD) that contains a photograph. However, in certain circumstances, an EAD past its “Card Expires” date qualifies as an unexpired EAD. See Section 4.4, Automatic Extensions of Employment Authorization Documents in Certain Circumstances, for more information. 
• For nonimmigrant aliens authorized to work for a specific employer incident to status, which means they are authorized to be employed based on their nonimmigrant status, a foreign passport with Form I-94 bearing the same name as the passport and an endorsement of their nonimmigrant status, as long as the period of endorsement has not yet expired and the proposed employment is not in conflict with any restrictions or limitations identified on the form 
• Passport from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with Form I-94 indicating nonimmigrant admission under the Compact of Free Association Between the United States and the FSM or RMI 
  

LIST B: Documents That Establish Identity 

All documents must be unexpired. 

• Driver’s license or ID card issued by a state or outlying possession of the United States, provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color, and address 
• ID card issued by federal, state, or local government agencies or entities, provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color, and address (This selection does not include the driver’s license or ID card issued by a state or outlying possession of the United States in Item 1 of this list.) 
• School ID card with a photograph 
• Voter’s registration card 
• U.S. military card or draft record 
• Military dependent’s ID card 
• U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Card 
• Native American tribal document 
• Driver’s license issued by a Canadian government authority 

If you are under age 18 and you are unable to present a document listed above, you may use one of the following: 

• School record or report card 
• Clinic, doctor, or hospital record 
• Day care or nursery school record 
  

LIST C: Documents That Establish Employment Authorization 

All documents must be unexpired. 

• A Social Security Account Number card, unless the card includes one of the following restrictions: 
  • NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT 
  • VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH INS AUTHORIZATION 
  • VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION 
• Certification of report of birth issued by the U.S. Department of State (Forms DS-1350, FS-545, FS-240) 
• Original or certified copy of a birth certificate issued by a state, county, municipal authority or outlying territory of the United States bearing an official seal 
• Native American tribal document 
• Form I-197, U.S. Citizen Identification Card 
• Form I-179, Identification Card for Use of Resident Citizen in the United States 
• Employment authorization document issued by the Department of Homeland Security. For examples, please visit uscis.gov/i-9-central. (This does not include Form I-766, Employment Authorization Document, from List A.)