Is it 3 years or 1 year that I should hold I-9 forms?

Question

I'm still confused about the length of time i should really be holding the i-9 forms after employees leave the company. I know that employers must hold i-9 forms for 3 hears AFTER the DATE OF HIRE an employee OR 1 year AFTER the date employment is TERMINATED or whichever is longer. But if that is the case, then it sounds more reasonable for it to be 3 years because you have to be hired before you are termed. So why do they have that 1 year rule?

Answer 1

3 years from hire date

1 year from termination which ever is longer.



i have always found it is easier to just keep them filed as current until they are terminated and then file them under terminated and clean those out each month. at the end of each year we filed the terminated I-9s for the entire year in storage and dated them for discard 3 years later. in this manner it did not make any difference when someone was hired or terminated we were always compliant with the law with as little shuffling through and date checking as possible.

why the law is written in this manner makes no sense to me.

it may be based on payroll records and the fact that in most states three years is the limit for legal action involving employment issues but i really don't understand the reasoning.

if you have not already checked this site you may want to:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/m...

if i can assist you in your file system or explain how we have handled ours e-mail me at your convenience.