Remote Examination of Documents (Optional Alternative Procedure to Physical Document Examination)

If you participate in E-Verify in good standing, you are qualified to remotely examine your employee’s documentation using a DHS-authorized alternative procedure at your E-Verify hiring sites. If you choose to offer the alternative procedure to new employees at an E-Verify hiring site, you must do so consistently for all employees at that site. However, you may choose to offer the alternative procedure for remote hires only but continue to apply physical examination procedures to all employees who work onsite or in a hybrid capacity, so long as you do not adopt such a practice for a discriminatory purpose or treat employees differently based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin, such as by deciding that certain employees are not eligible for remote examination of their documentation. 

E-Verify Participation Required

You must participate in E-Verify in good standing if you want to remotely examine your employee's documents. New E-Verify enrollees and users will complete an E-Verify tutorial that includes fraudulent document awareness training. Existing employers who are already enrolled in E-Verify have access to this tutorial and may retake it at any time.

E-Verify Employer in Good Standing:

• Is enrolled in E-Verify with respect to all hiring sites that use the alternative procedure to remotely examine documents,
• Uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees in the United States, and
• Complies with all other requirements of the E-Verify program.

Remote Examination of Documents Procedures:

• Examine copies (front and back, if the document is two-sided) of Form I-9 documents or an acceptable receipt to ensure that the documentation presented reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the employee;
• Conduct a live video interaction with the individual presenting the document(s) to ensure that the documentation reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the individual. The employee must first transmit a copy of the document(s) to the employer (per Step 1 above) and then present the same document(s) during the live video interaction; and
• Retain a clear and legible copy of the documentation (front and back if the documentation is two-sided).

Indicate that you used an Alternative Procedure on Form I-9:

• On the Form I-9 dated 08/01/2023, check the box to indicate that you used an alternative procedure in the Additional Information field in Section 2.
• On the Form I-9 dated 10/21/2019, notate “Alternative Procedure” in the Additional Information field in Section 2.
  

Reverification or Rehire

• If you are completing the remote documentation examination for a rehire or reverification, check the box on Form I-9 Edition 08/01/2023, in Supplement B.

• Continue to complete the Form I-9 according to Form I-9 instructions and related guidance on I-9 Central and in the M-274, Handbook for Employers.
• For reverification, do not create a new E-Verify case.

Retention of Documents

• Retain a clear copy (front and back, if two-sided) of all documents examined in a paper or electronic format, or in an acceptable combination, for as long as the employee works for you, plus the specified period after their employment has ended.
• The retention of document copies allows an opportunity, at the time of a routine employer audit or for a DHS auditor to assess if the documentation presented during the remote examination appears to be genuine and relate to the employee.
• In the event of a Form I-9 audit by a federal government inspector, you must make available copies of the identity and U.S. work authorization documentation the employee presented for remote document examination.