When New Hires and HR teams complete Form I-9, the New Hire can move on, their work is done. But for Human Resources departments, the responsibilities continue.
This is because the federal government requires employers to maintain a copy of a completed Form I-9 for every employee on the payroll. They must be readily accessible and unaltered, and are to be presented during any inquiry from DHS/USCIS.
Because these records contain personal information, they obviously cannot be accessible to everyday employees, however, and should only be retrievable for a select few people from leadership and HR teams.
So, with these few requirements, how should HR teams store I-9 Forms?
Three Acceptable Storage Solutions For Completed I-9s
It is important to note that all compliance information should come from the source. Always check the latest US government requirements before making any risk and compliance decision.
That said, there are currently no specific requirements about how HR teams should store completed I-9s, just that they be unaltered and accessible when required. Yet, USCIS offers three potential storage solutions for HR teams:
- Hard copies, stored in a limited-access location, separate from all other employee records
- Microfilm or Microfiche
- Electronic Storage
Yet, in the current era of remote work, it is cumbersome and illogical to get all records housed in a centralized location. This makes hard copies an undesirable and unnecessarily complicated solution.
And while microfilm/microfiche is a fun idea seemingly transported out of a Cold War spy novel, it is so limited and dated that it does not feel like a realistic option at this point.
Electronic Storage for the Remote Age and TrendSource Remote I-9 Verifications
This leaves, of course, electronic storage as the ideal solution for storing completed I-9s. With cloud storage, one need not worry about a corrupted hard drive suddenly deleting these important records, and a centrally housed electronic storage system is easier to feed and maintain than one for hard copies.
This is particularly true in the remote work era, where employees far and wide are onboarded with Remote I-9 Verifications, like those offered by TrendSource.
When a Remote I-9 Verification is completed, it is immediately and forever available in TrendSource’s client dashboard. This allows employers to retrieve these records quickly and effortlessly, when necessary, but also keeps them away from everyday files and less sensitive information.
While there are no specific requirements for how to store completed I-9s, HR teams should consider electronic storage to be the easiest and best suited for current work conditions.
