I-9 authorized representatives: who can be one, and the risk

An I-9 authorized representative is anyone an employer designates to physically examine a new hire's identity and work-authorization documents and complete Section 2 of Form I-9 on the employer's behalf, when the employer itself cannot do it in person. USCIS guidance places almost no restriction on who can serve in the role: no license, no certification, no government registration. The tradeoff is that the employer keeps full legal responsibility for whatever that representative does or misses.

Why an authorized representative exists

Form I-9 Section 2 requires physically examining the new hire's original documents within three business days of the start date. When the person completing Section 2 is not in the same location as the new hire, typically a remote hire, a hire at a distant office, or an agency placement, the employer designates someone else, in that location, to do the physical examination step and sign the certification. See I-9 remote verification for how this option compares with the DHS alternative procedure available to employers enrolled in E-Verify, and I-9 timing in hiring for the three-business-day deadline itself.

Who can serve: almost anyone but the new hire

USCIS's guidance is unusually permissive here. An authorized representative can be:

• A notary public (acting in this context as a representative, not performing a notarial act).
• A colleague, manager, or HR contact based near the new hire.
• A paid document-review or I-9 service.
• Family or friends of the new hire, though many employers avoid this for the appearance of a conflict of interest even though the guidance does not prohibit it.
• Legally, "anyone," in USCIS's own phrasing, with one fixed exception below.

The one rule that never bends: the new employee cannot act as their own authorized representative. Someone other than the person being verified has to do the physical examination.

What the representative must actually do

1. Physically examine the original, unexpired documents the employee presents, in person, at the same time and place as the employee (this is a document review, not a video call).
2. Determine whether the documents reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting them. They are not expected to detect sophisticated forgery, only to catch what a reasonable person would notice.
3. Complete the Section 2 certification fields themselves: the same person who examined the documents must fill in the certification and sign and date it. A representative cannot examine documents and then have someone else at the employer sign based on their say-so.
4. Return the completed Section 2 and any copies (if the employer's policy is to retain copies) to the employer promptly, so the employer can meet the three-business-day deadline measured from the employee's start date, not from when the paperwork happens to arrive back at headquarters.

What a representative is not responsible for: confirming that documents are genuine beyond a reasonable visual review. Their job is to look at the document, compare it to the person, and honestly certify what they saw, not to authenticate security features the way a trained document examiner would.

The liability the employer keeps

Designating a representative does not transfer legal responsibility for Section 2. If the representative misses an expired document, accepts something that does not reasonably relate to the employee, or fills in the certification incorrectly, the employer, not the representative, is the one who answers for it in an audit or inspection. This is the reason to choose a representative deliberately rather than whoever happens to be available, and to brief them rather than assume the form's instructions are self-explanatory.

A briefing script to send an authorized representative

Before the appointment:
- Confirm the new hire's name, start date, and the three-business-day deadline
  for completing Section 2.
- Send the representative Form I-9's List of Acceptable Documents so they know
  what a valid List A, or List B plus List C, combination looks like.
- Tell them: examine only original documents, never photocopies, faxes, or
  photos on a phone screen.

At the appointment:
- Ask the employee to present their own choice of acceptable document(s); the
  representative cannot demand a specific document over another valid option.
- Examine each document to confirm it reasonably appears genuine and relates
  to the person presenting it.
- Record the document title, issuing authority, number and expiration date
  exactly as shown.

Right after:
- Complete the Section 2 certification, sign, and date it the same day as the
  examination -- never backdate.
- Send the completed form back to [contact] within [X hours], so the employer
  can meet the three-business-day deadline from the employee's start date.
- Flag anything that felt off, even if you completed the form, so the employer
  can follow up.

Special cases

• Agency placements. A staffing agency that is the employer of record for a temp worker typically completes its own I-9, and may use its own authorized representative near the worksite; the client company generally does not complete a separate I-9 for the same worker. Confirm which party is the legal employer for I-9 purposes before assuming who is responsible. See contractor onboarding checklist for the broader W-2-versus-1099 and I-9 picture for placements.
• Multiple remote hires in the same city. Employers sometimes designate one recurring representative, such as a local notary service, for all remote hires in a metro area, rather than finding a new person for each hire. That is permitted and can reduce inconsistency, provided the same briefing is given every time.
• E-Verify employers. Being enrolled in E-Verify does not change how the authorized-representative option works; it adds a second, separate remote option, the DHS alternative procedure, which involves examining documents over live video instead of in person. The two are different paths to the same Section 2 deadline, not the same procedure.

Correcting a representative's error after the fact

A missing document number, a wrong expiration date, or a skipped field is common when someone unfamiliar with Form I-9 does this occasionally rather than every week. USCIS's correction guidance in the Handbook for Employers applies the same way whether the original error was the employer's or a representative's: draw a single line through the incorrect entry, write the correct information next to it, and initial and date the correction with the current date. Never use correction fluid, never erase, and never backdate a fix to make it look like it was caught on the original day. If the representative is still reachable, ask them to make and initial the correction themselves, since they are the one who examined the documents; if not, the employer can make the correction and attach a signed, dated note explaining who caught the error and why. What you should not do is quietly reprint or redo Section 2 as though the error never happened.

A short compliance checklist

• Put your choice of representative and the briefing above in writing before the appointment, not verbally the day of.
• Confirm the representative understands the three-business-day deadline runs from the employee's start date, not from when the representative is available.
• Require original documents only, examined in person; never accept documents examined over a video call unless you are specifically using the separate DHS alternative procedure as an E-Verify employer.
• Keep a record of who acted as the representative for each remote hire, in case an inspection later asks who performed the physical examination.
• Review Section 2 promptly after it comes back, since a representative's small error is still your error to catch and correct.

Common mistakes