Employees must present documentation to prove both their Identity and their Work Authorization. Documents from List A establish both. An employee who chooses to present a document from List A, only needs to provide one form of documentation from the list. Alternatively, the employee may present one document from List B to establish identity, and one document from List C to establish employment authorization. All documents must be valid and unexpired.
The employer may not dictate to the employee which form of documentation they may provide. The employee may present any form of documentation that is included in the list. For this reason, an employer may not require an employee to fill in their Social Security Number in Section 1, as a Social Security card is one of the options an employee may use to prove work authorization. If an employer requires the employee to fill in their SSN in Section 1, they are in effect forcing the employee to choose a specific method of documentation. (An exception to this is if the employer uses E-Verify, in which case an SSN is required to complete the process.)
Employers may keep copies of the employee’s documentation on file but are not required to. However, if an employer keeps copies of documentation for one employee, the employer must do so for all employees.