This is the one job on our list that is not a notarization at all, and treating it like one is how it goes wrong.
It is not a notarial act
When an employer asks a notary to “notarize an I-9”, what they need is someone to act as an authorized representative: a person the employer designates to examine the new hire’s original documents in person and complete Section 2 on the employer’s behalf.
No seal goes on Form I-9. No notarial certificate. Adding either is a mistake, it can invalidate the form, and in some states a notary acting as an authorized representative must be careful not to present themselves as notarizing anything. We complete the form as your representative, and we sign in that capacity.
Why remote hires need it
The employee has to present original documents to a human being who physically examines them. If your new hire is in Tacoma and your HR team is in Austin, someone local has to do the looking. That is what we are there for.
No seal: Form I-9 is not notarized. We complete Section 2 as your authorized representative and sign in that capacity. A notarial seal on an I-9 can invalidate the form.
What the employer sends us
- Section 1, already completed by the employee on or before their first day
- A written designation authorising us to act as your representative
- The employee’s start date, so the Section 2 deadline is unambiguous
- Any internal instruction on which List A, B, and C documents you accept
- How you want the completed form returned, and to whom
What the employee brings
Either one document from List A, or one from List B together with one from List C. Originals only. Photocopies and photographs do not satisfy the examination requirement, and this is the most common reason one of these appointments fails.
The employee chooses which documents to present. Neither the employer nor the representative may specify them; that is a discrimination issue, not a preference.
The three-day rule
Section 2 must be completed within three business days of the employee’s first day of work. For a remote hire in another city, three days is not much: the designation has to be issued, the appointment booked, the documents brought, and the form returned.
Book it the day the offer is accepted, not the day the clock starts.
Getting it back to you
We complete Section 2 in the employee’s presence, sign as authorized representative, and return the form the way you have asked, usually a scan the same day with the original to follow. We do not keep copies of employee documents.
We serve employers across Tacoma and the South Puget Sound, and we can usually meet a new hire within a day of the request. If you also have corporate resolutions or contracts needing genuine notarization, those can happen in the same visit.