I-9 and E-Verify Deadline Calculator

What it computes

Every Form I-9 runs on one date: the first day the new hire works for pay. The calculator takes that date and returns the three deadlines that hang from it, each with the rule that sets it. Our Form I-9 employer guide walks through the form field by field.

Section 1: no later than the first day

Section 2: three business days after the first day

The regulation gives the employer three business days of the hire to examine the documents and complete Section 2. USCIS’s Handbook for Employers (M-274, section 4.0) shows how to count: “if an employee begins employment on Monday, you must review the employee’s documentation and complete Section 2 on or before Thursday of that week.” So the first day is not counted. A Monday start is due Thursday, a Friday start the next Wednesday. You or an authorized representative can complete it any time from the day the offer is accepted up to that date. Not sure what the employee may show? Check the combination with the I-9 document checker.

Jobs shorter than three business days

In plain terms: for a two-day event crew or a one-day fill-in, the documents are examined and Section 2 is finished on the first day, and the employee must show the actual documents, not a receipt for a replacement.

The E-Verify case: by the third business day

If you are enrolled in E-Verify, the User Manual (section 1.5) says: “Create a case for each newly hired employee no later than the third business day after he or she starts work for pay.” The case comes after the Form I-9 is complete, never before the offer is accepted: E-Verify may not be used to pre-screen applicants. Create it late and E-Verify asks for a reason for the delay, from a list that includes awaiting a Social Security number and technical problems. Our E-Verify guide for employers covers enrollment and the rest of the case steps; if a case comes back as a mismatch, the Tentative Nonconfirmation guide takes over.

Do federal holidays count as business days?

Neither source says. The regulation (8 CFR 274a.2), the Handbook for Employers (sections 3.0 and 4.0) and the E-Verify User Manual all use “business days” without defining the term; we read each of them on October 23, 2026. The manual does define a different term, “federal government working days”, as “Monday through Friday (except for federal holidays)”, but it uses that term for the mismatch deadlines, not for case creation.

So the calculator counts Monday to Friday and, by default, counts a federal holiday as a business day. That gives the earlier of the two possible dates, which no reading can call late. If you take the view that a holiday your office is closed is not a business day, tick the box to skip federal holidays from OPM’s 2026, 2027 and 2028 schedules and see the later date. The tool does not know state holidays, and if your business routinely works weekends the sources do not say whether those days count either.

Worked example

Six hires at one small employer in the late autumn of 2026, every date run through the calculator. The holiday column shows the later date you get if you skip federal holidays; where no holiday falls in the window it is the same.

The office assistant is USCIS’s own example: Monday start, Thursday deadline. The bookkeeper’s window holds Veterans Day (Wednesday, November 11), which moves the date from Thursday to Friday only if you skip holidays. The Saturday start counts from the next Monday, so Wednesday is the third business day. The warehouse picker’s window spans Thanksgiving and a weekend. The event crew’s job is shorter than three business days, so Section 2 is due on the first day, while the E-Verify case still runs to the third business day.

For an employer that examines documents remotely, the deadlines are the same; the remote I-9 alternative procedure changes how the documents are seen, not when.

State notes

• Federal

The Section 1, Section 2 and E-Verify deadlines are federal, so the calculator returns the same dates in every state. What a state can change is whether you must use E-Verify at all. Check yours in E-Verify requirements by state, and if a vendor runs your cases, see the E-Verify employer agents we compared.

State holidays are not in the tool. Once the form is complete, keep it for the federal retention period; the I-9 retention calculator dates it from the same first day.