Two deadlines, both worked out from one date
Every Form I-9 has exactly two completion deadlines, and both are worked out from the hire date: 8 CFR 274a.1(c) defines that as "the actual commencement of employment of an employee for wages or other remuneration," which USCIS states in plainer terms as "the first day of work for pay." The employee completes Section 1 no later than that day, and can do it any time after accepting the job, per USCIS's own guidance. The employer completes Section 2 within three business days of the same date, under 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(1)(ii).
The count starts the day after, not the day of
The hire date itself is day zero, and it is not one of the three business days. USCIS's own example makes this explicit: "if your employee began work for pay on Monday, you must complete Section 2 by Thursday of that week." Monday does not count. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the three business days, so the deadline is Thursday, not the Wednesday a straight "add three days" would give. The same logic pushes the deadline further whenever a weekend or a federal holiday sits inside the window: a Friday hire runs into the following Wednesday once the weekend either side is skipped, and a federal holiday inside that stretch pushes it a day later again.
What counts as a business day, stated as precisely as the source allows
Weekends plainly are not business days. Federal holidays are the genuinely less settled part: USCIS has not published a single rule spelling out how they should be counted, and the honest position, drawn from employment-law commentary rather than a government pronouncement, is that a business day is a day the employer is actually open. For an ordinary Monday-to-Friday workplace, that means the 11 federal holidays fixed by 5 U.S.C. 6103 are skipped along with weekends, which is the default here. A workplace that is genuinely staffed through weekends and federal holidays, common enough on a site that never stops, is advised to count those days as business days too, and that is what the "open every day" option switches on.
A job under three business days loses the grace period entirely
There is no partial window for very short engagements. 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(1)(iii) requires document examination and Section 2 to happen "at the time of the hire" wherever the job will last under three business days, which puts both sections due the same day as Section 1, not three days later.
Retention is a related figure, not the main event
Completing the form is not the end of the paperwork. The M-274 Handbook fixes retention at three years after the hire date or one year after employment ends, whichever is later, so a short stint is governed by the three-year figure and a long one by the one-year-after-leaving figure instead. This tool shows it as an optional, secondary result, because the question this page exists for is the two completion deadlines, not records management.
Federal and constant, and E-Verify runs its own clock
It does not vary by state: the deadlines are federal and constant everywhere. It does not cover E-Verify's own timing, which a number of states additionally require of some or all employers and which runs alongside Form I-9 rather than as part of it. And it does not tell anybody that a completed form is correct or compliant. It calculates the two dates that follow from a hire date, on the counting rule described above; what documents get presented, and whether they are handled correctly, is a separate judgement for whoever completes Section 2.
Common questions
Does the hire date itself count as one of the three business days?
No. USCIS's own worked example, from I-9 Central, Completing Section 2 (last reviewed 15 July 2025): "if your employee began work for pay on Monday, you must complete Section 2 by Thursday of that week." Monday is the hire date and is day zero, not day one. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the three business days, so the deadline lands on Thursday, not Wednesday. Counting the hire date itself as day one is the single most common way this deadline gets calculated wrong by one day, in the employer's favor and against the rule.
What exactly is "the hire date"? Is it when the offer was accepted or when work started?
Neither the offer date nor the paperwork date. 8 CFR 274a.1(c) defines hire as "the actual commencement of employment of an employee for wages or other remuneration." USCIS's own guidance restates this in plain terms: "the hire date means the first day of work for pay." So it is the calendar day the person actually starts earning wages, whatever the offer letter or the personnel file says elsewhere.
Can Section 1 be filled in before the first day of work?
Yes, and often should be. USCIS, I-9 Central, Completing Section 1 (last reviewed 2 April 2025): the employee "must complete and sign Section 1... no later than their first day of employment... but may complete Section 1 any time after they accept the job offer." The first day is the deadline, not the earliest allowed date.
What if the job will not last three business days?
The grace period disappears entirely rather than shrinking. 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(1)(iii) states that an employer hiring someone "for a duration of less than three business days must comply with paragraphs (b)(1)(ii)(A) and (b)(1)(ii)(B)... at the time of the hire." Both document examination and Section 2 are due on the first day of work, the same day as Section 1, with no three-day window at all.
Do federal holidays get skipped when counting the three business days, the same as weekends?
This is the one place worth being precise rather than definite, because the regulation itself never actually defines "business day." USCIS's own examples are always framed around an ordinary Monday-to-Friday week, and employment-law commentary reviewed alongside it (an Ogletree Deakins analysis, and i-9intelligence.com, both checked 19 August 2026) agrees on the practical answer without pointing to a single settled rule: a business day is a day the employer is actually open. Ogletree's own words are the honest summary: "there has been no clear, absolute policy pronouncement from USCIS on this interpretation." For a standard Monday-to-Friday workplace, that means the 11 federal holidays under 5 U.S.C. 6103 are not business days, which is the default this tool applies. A workplace genuinely open and staffed on weekends and federal holidays is advised by that same commentary to count those days too, which the "open every day" option here switches on.
How long does a completed Form I-9 have to be kept?
The M-274 Handbook for Employers, section 10.0 (last reviewed 18 July 2023), states it directly: "you must retain a Form I-9 for each person you hire for three years after the date of hire, or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later." Worked under two years, the three-years-after-hire figure is always the later date. Worked over two years, the one-year-after-leaving figure takes over instead. While someone is still employed, the three-year figure is a firm minimum and the real answer is not fixed until they leave.
Does any of this vary by state?
No. Form I-9 and its two completion deadlines come from federal law, 8 CFR 274a.2, and there is no state variation on the deadlines themselves anywhere in the country. A number of states separately require some or all employers to also use E-Verify, which is a related but distinct federal system with its own rules and its own timing, not a change to the Form I-9 deadlines above. Checking whether that applies needs that state's own requirement, not this page.
Is this the same three business days as the deadline to produce records for an inspection?
No, and it is worth not mixing the two up. The M-274 Handbook also gives government inspectors, DHS, the Department of Justice's IER, or the Department of Labor, a right to see stored Forms I-9 "within three business days of an inspection request." That is a response deadline for a form that may have been completed years earlier. It has nothing to do with the deadline this page calculates, which is for completing the form in the first place around a new hire.