T4 · Trunk
Records, retention & I-9
What you have to keep, for how long, and where it lives — the unglamorous backbone of a compliant hiring program.
Key takeaways
- I-9 is a hard deadline (3 business days), not a soft one
- Retention windows vary by document type — when in doubt, keep
- The audit you're prepping for might be three years from now
- HR holds the master copies; you keep nothing on your laptop
Hiring generates paperwork: I-9s, offer letters, interview notes, background-check authorizations. Federal law sets retention floors; your org’s policy sometimes exceeds them.
The short version: HR retains the master copies, nothing sits on a personal device, and the I-9 deadline is real.