What is the employer's responsibility to determine the authenticity of the identification documents presented for the I-9?

Editor's Note: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced several temporary policies regarding Form I-9 employment verification due to the COVID-19 outbreak. See Temporary Policies Related to COVID-19. 

While the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) does not expect employers to be Sherlock Holmes, it does expect the employer to examine the documents and determine if they reasonably appear on their face to be genuine and relate to the person presenting them. But what does that really mean? 

The easier determination is whether the documents relate to the person. This can be done by ensuring that the photo resembles the person; the name on the ID is the same as given, or, if different, can be explained (e.g., name change, national custom, etc.); and the identifying, non-changing information such as height and eye color are accurate.

For example, if the new hire gave her name as Mary Bright Smith, but her Social Security card says Mary Bright, ask her to explain the difference. If she changed her name because of marriage, it would be reasonable to assume that the Social Security card does indeed belong to her and reasonably relates to her. If all documents seem to match with the person standing before you, your responsibility on this aspect has been met. If not, you may need to inquire further, or reject the ID and ask for another one on the list. Examples of unacceptable forms of identification would be a 20-year-old school ID that in no way resembles the person before you and has no identifying information printed on it, or a damaged ID, where the picture is too damaged to discern if it is the new hire. In these cases, tell the employee that you cannot reasonably determine the document relates to him or her and ask the employee to provide another document from the list.

To determine whether a document appears to be genuine, common sense and a useful guide from the USCIS can help. The Handbook for Employers is an online guide from the USCIS to instruct employers on how to properly complete an I-9 form. The handbook contains a section showing pictures of sample documents allowed for I-9 purposes. An employer can use these pictures to determine what some documents in general should look like, even though variations have occurred over the years. In addition, the guide points out common—but not acceptable as genuine—documents that employees may provide as IDs:

• Laminated Social Security cards that say “Not valid if laminated” on the back.
• Metal or plastic Social Security cards.
• Printouts from the Social Security Administration with the Social Security number and other identifying information on it.
• Photocopies of documents (with the exception of certified copies of birth certificates).

Some common sense indicators that documents may not be genuine include:

• The document looks tampered with: photo looks glued on, typing appears altered.
• Typing on the document is crooked or in an unusual typeface.
• Certain identifying information is in different or larger typeface than other information.
• Misspellings of the pre-printed information on a document (such as typos in “Social Security Administration”), although slight misspellings of employee’s personal information that do not make it unreasonable to relate it to the individual are allowed.
• Name on the document does not adequately resemble name given by the employee or name appearing on other IDs.
• Birthdates on the separate IDs are too different, or too different from what employee has indicated in section 1.

In short, the employer’s responsibilities resemble that of a bouncer more than a private investigator. If the ID looks genuine and easily relates to the person, your obligations are met. Further, if the documents reasonably appear on their face to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting them, you must accept them. To do otherwise could be an unfair immigration-related employment practice.