Form I-9 for rehires: when Supplement B is enough and when you need a new form

When a former employee comes back, you have a choice if you rehire them within three years of the date their original Form I-9 was completed: complete Supplement B (Reverification and Rehire) of the old form, or complete a brand-new Form I-9. After three years, only a new form will do. Supplement B is quicker, but it comes with conditions: the old form must be on hand, the rehire has to be recorded on the current edition, anyone whose work authorization has expired must be reverified in the same step, and E-Verify employers have extra rules about whether a new case is needed.

This page is the rehire decision in detail. For reverification of current employees whose documents expire, see I-9 reverification; for how long the original form has to be kept for the option to exist at all, see I-9 retention rules.

First question: is this actually a rehire?

Some returns are not hires at all for Form I-9 purposes. USCIS's continuing employment rules say no new form or Supplement B is needed when the person never stopped being your employee in the legal sense, including:

• approved paid or unpaid leave, such as illness, parental leave, vacation or study;
• promotions, demotions and pay changes;
• a temporary layoff for lack of work;
• strikes and labor disputes;
• reinstatement after a suspension found to be wrongful;
• transfers within the same employer;
• seasonal employment;
• continuing with a related, successor or reorganized employer.

The test for the layoff and seasonal cases is whether the person had a reasonable expectation of employment at all times. USCIS lists factors: whether they worked on a regular and substantial basis, followed your absence policy, whether you have historically recalled people in that position, whether their job was permanently filled, whether they sought benefits inconsistent with returning, your ability to rehire, and what was communicated about coming back. If the answer is yes, keep using the existing form. If the person resigned or was terminated and later returns, it is a rehire.

The decision, step by step

Measuring the three years

The clock runs from the date the previous Form I-9 was completed, not from the last day worked. Someone hired on March 2, 2024 whose form was completed that day, who left in December 2025 and returns in February 2027, is within three years. The same person returning on March 15, 2027 is not, even though they were gone for barely more than a year. Record the original completion date somewhere your rehire process can see it, so nobody has to guess.

Completing Supplement B for a rehire

1. Pull the original form and confirm it belongs to this person and was completed within three years.
2. Check the edition. As of September 2026, USCIS lists the 01/20/25 edition and one 08/01/23 edition, both expiring 05/31/2027, as valid. If the original is older, use a Supplement B from the current edition.
3. Enter the name exactly as it appears on the original form at the top of the supplement. If it has changed, record only the changed part in the New Name fields.
4. Enter the date of rehire.
5. Decide whether reverification is needed. U.S. citizens, noncitizen nationals and permanent residents who presented a Permanent Resident Card never need it. Someone whose earlier authorization or List A or C document has expired does: record the new document title, number and expiration date. The employee chooses from the lists for the current edition.
6. Sign and date the block, and attach the supplement to the original form. Use a new block for each later rehire within the window.

The Form I-9 instructions describe this as an option: "Employers may choose to document a rehire on the supplement as well." Nothing requires it, and nothing stops you completing a fresh form instead.

Rehires and E-Verify

E-Verify gives employers two consistent approaches: treat every rehire as a new hire, with a new Form I-9 and a new case, or use Supplement B and create a case only for rehires who never had one. Under the second approach, the User Manual sets out the conditions:

• Within three years, earlier case ended in Employment Authorized: you may record the rehire on Supplement B without creating a new case. If a List A or C document has expired, update it on Supplement B; no new case is needed for that either. Or you may complete a new form and a new case.
• Within three years, but no case was created, or the earlier case did not end in Employment Authorized: have the employee complete a new Form I-9 and create a case.
• Three years or more: new Form I-9 and a new case.

A common oversight: an employer enrolled in E-Verify after the person first left. The old form never had a case, so the rehire needs a new form and a case even though it falls within three years.

Returning temps and staffing agencies

Staffing agencies see rehires constantly, and the continuing-employment question comes first. A temp who finishes one assignment and remains in the agency's active pool, expecting the next one, may never have stopped being the agency's employee; USCIS's reasonable-expectation factors decide that, and the agency should document the policy it applies. A temp who was formally separated, or who disappeared for a year and then reapplies, is a rehire, and the table above applies.

Two practical points for agencies. Rehires are where multi-branch agencies lose track of the original form, because it sits in a different branch's files, so centralize the lookup. And if the agency uses E-Verify, the rehire approach it picks has to be applied consistently, not chosen per client. See E-Verify for staffing agencies.

Retention after a rehire

Once you attach a rehire supplement, the original form becomes the Form I-9 for the current period of employment, so it cannot be purged while the person works for you. Recalculate its purge date from the new separation when it comes, using the three-years-from-hire or one-year-after-termination formula in I-9 retention rules, and confirm the calculation with counsel if your files have several rehire blocks on one form.

Common rehire mistakes

• Counting three years from the last day worked instead of from the date the original form was completed.
• Recording a rehire on the Supplement B of an expired edition.
• Reverifying a returning U.S. citizen or permanent resident, or asking them for documents at all when they remain authorized.
• Skipping reverification for a returning employee whose EAD has expired.
• Using Supplement B when the original form cannot be found, or was completed for a different entity after a restructuring.
• For E-Verify employers, reusing a form that never had a case.
• Purging the original form on its old schedule after it has been reused for a rehire.