I-9 retention calculator

Keep each Form I-9 until the later of 3 years after the date of hire and 1 year after employment ends. Enter the two dates in the I-9 retention calculator on this page and it gives you that date. Batch mode does the same for a list of employees.

Mode

One employee A list of employees

Date the employee began work for pay

Last day of employment

Leave it empty if the employee still works for you.

Enter the date the employee began work for pay.

How the I-9 retention calculator works

Single mode takes two dates: the date the employee began work for pay, and the employee’s last day of employment. It adds 3 years to the first and 1 year to the second, then shows the later of the two as the keep-until date.

Two cases get special handling:

• No last day. If the employee still works for you, leave the last day empty. The result reads “Keep: employment has not ended” and there is no purge date.
• A last day before the hire date. The calculator reports an error, because employment cannot end before it begins.

Treat the result as a minimum. Keep the form at least until that date.

Batch mode for a list of employees

The calculator that US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) publishes on its Retention and Storage page has one field for the start date and one for the end date, so it handles one employee at a time. Batch mode is for a whole workforce. Paste or upload a list of dates, with an optional employee ID for each person, and get the list back sorted by purge date.

Download the result as a CSV file, which opens in Excel or any spreadsheet program, or print the worksheet.

Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent. Use employee IDs rather than names.

The I-9 retention rule

For an employer, the Form I-9 is kept for the later of 3 years after the date of hire and 1 year after the date employment is terminated. The statute and the regulation both say “whichever is later”. As of November 2026, the row below was checked on 2026-11-03.

This page covers employers. A recruiter or referrer for a fee follows its own rule: 3 years after the date of the hire (8 CFR 274a.2(b)(2)(i)(B)). USCIS says copies of documents, if you made them, should be kept with the corresponding Form I-9.

Which date counts as the hire date

The statute and the regulation count from “the date of the hire”. The regulation defines hire as the actual commencement of employment of an employee for wages or other remuneration (8 CFR 274a.1(c)). USCIS’s calculator asks for the date the employee began work for pay.

The calculator on this page uses that date. It follows the regulation’s definition and the date USCIS asks for.

Example: an employee accepts an offer on 2023-01-23 and begins work for pay on 2023-02-06. Enter 2023-02-06.

Examples

Example: three employees and the result for each.

The first employee stayed more than 2 years, so the last-day date is later. The second left after less than 4 months, so the hire date plus 3 years is later. The third is still employed, so there is no purge date yet.

I-9 retention for terminated employees

Keep the form of a former employee until the later of the two dates. If the employee leaves less than 2 years after starting, the date 3 years after hire is later. If the employee leaves more than 2 years after starting, the date 1 year after the last day is later. At exactly 2 years the two dates are the same.

Before you destroy a Form I-9

The keep-until date is the earliest a form may go, and a hold overrides it. Do not destroy a record that a pending or contemplated federal matter may need (DS-03). A discrimination charge or enforcement action also puts the relevant records on hold until final disposition (HR-03).

If no hold applies, secure document destruction covers the method and the log. Keep the batch worksheet with the log.

Storage and inspection

Form I-9 may be kept on paper, electronically, or on microfilm or microfiche. USCIS says you may store forms on site or off site, in one format or a combination. Electronic storage has requirements of its own in 8 CFR 274a.2(e), (f) and (g), which this page does not cover.

Officers must give at least 3 business days’ notice before an inspection (8 CFR 274a.2(b)(2)(ii)). USCIS says you must be able to present the forms for inspection within 3 business days. If you keep the forms at another location, tell the officer where they are and arrange the inspection.

USCIS recommends keeping Form I-9 separate from personnel records to make an inspection request easier to meet. Never mail Forms I-9 to USCIS or US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

What this page does not cover

Rehires, reverification and remote verification have their own rules. USCIS explains them in I-9 Central. This page covers the federal rule only and gives no state periods.

Next steps

Add the result to your schedule. The record retention schedule lists every federal period, including this one, and the document retention policy guide shows how to write the schedule down. Other personnel periods are in the employee records guide, payroll periods are in the payroll records guide, and the business records guide shows how the groups fit together.