Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9)

Federal law requires that all U.S. employers must properly complete Form I-9 for every person they hire for employment in the United States.

What is the I-9 Form?

Form I-9 is used to verify the identity and employment authorization of people hired for employment in the United States and includes both citizens and noncitizens. Both the employee and the employer must complete the form.

What is the federal requirement?

• Employees must complete and sign Section 1 of Form I-9 no later than their first day of employment.
• NIU Human Resource Services must complete Section 2 of the I-9 form within three business days of the first day of work for pay for the employee by examining evidence of identity and employment eligibility. The employee must be physically present when Section 2 is being completed.

How do new employees complete Employment Eligibility Verification?

The verification is a two step process.

1. New employees can access the Form I-9 at niu.edu/form-I-9.
2. An NIU official or an Authorized Designated Representative must verify the physical documents that were uploaded to the system in Step One. While the federal requirement permits three business days from the first day of work to complete this process, NIU encourages this to be completed before work begins for student employees and graduate assistants.

Where can a new employee complete Step Two – Document Verification?

Authorized Designated Representative: New employees can designate an individual to verify their documents.  This can be a friend, family member, neighbor or Spouse (18 years of age or older).

Upon completion of the Section 1, new employees  will be prompted to invite a person of their choice (18 years of age or older) to meet with in person to complete Section 2 of the Form I-9. This person will review and record the original documents that you present for Identity and Employment Authorization in the United States.

For assistance logging in or completing the I-9 form, please contact Human Resource Services at HumanResources@niu.edu or visit one of our DeKalb locations (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., excluding university holidays and closures):

• Human Resources Building – 1515 West Lincoln Highway in DeKalb on the southwest side of campus.
• The HRS Service Center located centrally on campus in Lowden Hall, suite 102.