Under the Onboarding menu within the I-9 Forms inbox, you'll find details of the Document Verification result. The following outlines the action to take on the result of submissions.
VERIFIED SUBMISSIONS
If the submission from the employee is verified, it will appear in the applicable I-9 Forms tab with a ‘Verified’ tag (indicated in green):
No additional action is required for verified submissions. The details of the verification can be viewed by clicking on the 'Verified' badge. These results can also be seen with the Form I-9 submission.
SUBMISSIONS UNABLE TO VERIFY
An admin may need to take action in the system when a document fails checks and Document Verification cannot validate it. You will not receive any notifications, but you will see these listed with an ‘Unable to Verify’ tag (indicated in red).
If you click the ‘Unable to Verify’ status, a window will open to review the document. From here, you can confirm you have reviewed the document by clicking the ‘Mark as Reviewed’ button (indicated in blue).
Above this button, you will see a comments box where you can write comments as needed regarding the review. Below this button, in the status box, you can view the checks that passed/failed by clicking on ‘Show Checks’. This can also be done via the employee’s profile by navigating to their I-9 submission.
Upon clicking ‘Mark as Reviewed’, the status will update with the ‘Reviewed by Admin’ tag, seen below.
This review is only confirmation that you have reviewed the document and does not update the Form I-9 to which it is attached. If there are additional steps you need to take for the submission, they must be completed on Form I-9 itself. (ex: Accept or Reject)
NOTE:
It is up to you, as the Employer of Record, to make the decision to accept any document(s) provided. Any checks that did not pass may or may not indicate fraud, mistake, or misrepresentation. Please review any associated checks and select ‘Mark as Reviewed’ and include any optional comments. It is at your discretion whether to proceed with employment, request a new submission, or terminate employment in consultation with your own internal counsel and the USCIS Handbook for Employers.
AUDIT TRAIL OF ADMIN ACTION
Overview of I-9 Administrative Review
Administrative review in the I-9 process allows employers to manually verify and approve employment eligibility documents. This ensures compliance with employment verification requirements and provides an audit trail for document verification activities. In the context of I-9 verification, two key statuses indicate the level of administrative oversight:
Reviewed by Admin: This status signifies that an administrator has manually reviewed the verification results. It may include admin comments and is typically used for ongoing document verification processes.
Approved by Admin: This status is associated with historical submissions in which documents were manually accepted by an admin. Similarly, "Declined by Admin" indicates that documents were rejected. These statuses are part of the I-9 audit trail and can be filtered under the 'Reviewed' filter in the system.
You'll be able to see the verification status ‘Verified’ (indicated in green) as well as the admin action ‘Reviewed by Admin’ (indicated in blue) and comments, if made, in the Form I-9 inbox:
For Document Verification users from March 12, 2025 (03/12/2025) and before, you will still have your previous submissions indicated with ‘Approved by Admin’ (indicated in blue) for manually accepted documents and ‘Declined by Admin’ (indicated in blue) for manually rejected documents. These historic selections will be filterable and found under the ‘Reviewed’ filter.
You can click the verification status to open a side window that shows details such as Status, Show Checks, Date, Reviewed by Admin, and Comments, if any.
FILTERING FOR DOCUMENT VERIFICATION STATUSES
An admin can filter by different verification statuses across all tabs except Missing or Rejected. The 'Reviewed' filter helps administrators track and manage documents that have been manually reviewed, approved, or declined.
DOES A REVIEW IN DOCUMENT VERIFICATION ALTER THE RESULT OF FORM I-9?
'No, this will only update the status in Document Verification and does not certify acceptance/rejection of Form I-9.
If you have a Section 1 review required for your I-9 submissions, you will still need to 'Accept' or 'Reject' those in the inbox. Likewise, in Form I-9, if Section 2 is incomplete, the employee will still need to proceed with that step to have an I-9 that is truly 'Complete'. To ensure that each I-9 form is reviewed and approved by your team rather than being automatically approved, follow these steps:
Navigate to the settings section of your I-9 verification system.
Enable the option that requires I-9 forms to be reviewed in the inbox before completing Section 2.
Save your changes to activate the manual review requirement. This setting allows your team to maintain control over the verification process, ensuring compliance and accuracy.