Documents to Prove Eligibility to Work in U.S.

  • All documents must be unexpired
  • Provide any document from List A
  • If you do not have a document from List A, you must provide two documents: one from List B and one from List C

List A

Documents that establish both identity and employment authorization

  1. U.S. Passport or U.S. Passport Card
  2. Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card (Form I-551)
  3. Foreign passport that contains a temporary I-551 stamp or temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa
  4. Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph (Form I-776)
  5. In the case of a non-immigrant alien authorized to work for a specific employer incident to status, a foreign passport with Form I-94 or Form I-94A bearing the same name as the passport and containing an endorsement of the alien's non-immigrant status, as long as the period of endorsement has not yet expired and the proposed employment is not in conflict with any restrictions or limitations identified on the form
  6. Passport from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with Form I-94 or Form I-94A indicating non-immigrant admission under the Compact of Free Association Between the United States and the FSM or RMI

List B

Documents that establish identity

  1. Driver's license or ID card issued by a State or outlying possession of the United States provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color, and address
  2. ID card issued by federal, state or local government agencies or entities, provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color, and address
  3. School ID with a photograph
  4. Voter's registration
  5. U.S. military card or draft record
  6. Military dependent's ID card
  7. U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Card
  8. Native American Tribal document
  9. Driver's license issued by a Canadian government authority

    For people under 18 who are unable to present a document listed above:
  10. School record or report card
  11. Clinic, doctor, or hospital record
  12. Daycare or nursery school record

List C

Documents that establish employment authorization

  1. Social Security Account Number card other than the one that specifies on the face that the issuance of the card does not authorize employment in the United States
  2. Certification of Birth Abroad issued by the Department of State (Form FS-545)
  3. Certification of Report of Birth issued by the Department of State (Form DS-1350)
  4. Original or certified copy of birth certificate issued by a State, county, municipal authority, or territory of the United States bearing an official seal
  5. Native American tribal document
  6. U.S. Citizen ID Card (Form I-197)
  7. Identification Card for Use of Resident Citizen in the United States (Form I-179)
  8. Employment authorization document issued by the Department of Homeland Security


Illustrations of many of these documents appear in Part 8 of the Handbook for Employers (M-274)

Form I-9 (Rev. 08/07/09)