USCIS recently reminded U.S. employers that they have just three days
after their new employees’ dates of hire to open a case in E-Verify. In
addition, this rule also applies to the completion of essential
portions of the I-9 form. Section 2 of the I-9 form should also be
completed within this time period. It should be noted, for
clarification, that the three-day period is, in fact, four total days,
as stated in a USCIS posting. For example, if an employee is hired on a
Monday, these deadlines must be reached by the Thursday of that same
week. The date of hire (in this case, Monday) is not counted in the
three-day period.
However, there has been some question as to whether ICE will interpret
the three-day rule in the same way that USCIS has stated. While ICE has
informed the public that they will honor the USCIS interpretation of
the three-day rule (the fourth day after a hire), ICE has not published
any official notice stating this understanding and has, instead, only
forwarded the USCIS posting to their field agents.
