Reassigning a Form I-9

Purpose

A signed Form I-9 cannot be altered. When critical information on a completed I-9 is wrong, or when an employee is rehired, you must issue a new form. This is a reassignment. If your organization uses E-Verify, the reassignment flow also handles the employee's existing E-Verify case, and the exact steps depend on that case's status. This article covers when to reassign, how to start, and what happens for each case scenario.

Who can do this: Any employer user with access to the employee's documents (typically the Employer Admin).

When to reassign

Step 1 — Select a reason for reassignment

Every reassignment begins by selecting a reason, regardless of the E-Verify case status.

1. Go to the employee's profile.
2. Navigate to Documents > Tax and Compliance, or go to the Document Library.
3. Click Assign Document(s).
4. Select I-9 Form and click Next.
5. The reassignment popup appears: "A Form I-9 is already on record for this employee and an associated E-Verify case may exist. Please select the appropriate reason to proceed with reassignment."

Reason for Reassigning (mandatory):

Attestation — check the box before confirming:

"I acknowledge that a new Form I-9 will be assigned to collect corrected or updated employee information, and that the existing Form I-9 will remain on record for audit and compliance purposes."

Click Confirm. UZIO then evaluates the employee's current E-Verify case status and determines which scenario applies.

Which scenario applies

UZIO decides based on the employee's current E-Verify case status. Two of the five are hard blocks. Nothing you do in the popup will get past them.

Scenario A — Open E-Verify case

Applies when: the employee has a case in any open status other than the two hard blocks. That includes Draft, Queued, Photo Match, Scan and Upload, Tentative Non Confirmation (pending referral or referred), Manual Review, Close Case & Resubmit, Final Non-Confirmation, and an Employment Authorized case that has not yet been closed. It does not apply to Unconfirmed Data (Scenario B) or Awaiting E-verify Submission (Scenario C), both of which block reassignment outright.

A secondary popup, "Active E-Verify Case Exists — [Current Case Status]", shows the existing Case ID, creation date, and current status. You must close the existing case before a new I-9 can be assigned.

1. Select a Reason for Closing Existing Case. The values are retrieved live from E-Verify and reflect all valid closure reasons for the current status.
2. Check: "I acknowledge that closing this E-Verify case is a final action and confirm that the selected closure reason is accurate."
3. Click Confirm.

Once closed, UZIO automatically assigns the new I-9 and sends the standard assignment notification email.

Scenario B — Unconfirmed Data case (hard block)

Applies when: the case is in Unconfirmed Data status.

Form I-9 cannot be reassigned under any circumstance while the case is in Unconfirmed Data. This is a hard block. The popup reads:

"An active E-Verify case already exists for this employee with Case ID [ID], currently in Unconfirmed Data status. Form I-9 cannot be reassigned for this case at this time. Please contact your support team for assistance with correcting the case and continuing the process."

Click OK. The I-9 is not assigned. If multiple documents were being assigned, the others still succeed.

The field confirmation E-Verify is asking for is not offered in the employer portal. Contact UZIO Support at support@uzio.com with the case number and the corrected value for each flagged field. UZIO confirms the details with E-Verify as your Employer Agent, or closes the case if they cannot be confirmed. Once the case has moved on or been closed, come back and reassign. See Understanding Your E-Verify Case for what Unconfirmed Data means and which fields are usually behind it.

Scenario C — Awaiting E-verify Submission (hard block)

Applies when: the case is in Awaiting E-verify Submission, meaning it was created in UZIO, is queued locally, and has not yet been sent to USCIS.

Form I-9 cannot be reassigned while a case sits in this state. UZIO shows a dedicated popup that mirrors the Unconfirmed Data block, naming the Case ID and the current status. Click OK; the I-9 is not assigned, and if multiple documents were being assigned together, the others still succeed.

Scenario D — Closed E-Verify case

Applies when: the most recent case is already closed.

The popup shows the closed Case ID, creation date, and final status; the Reassign Reason you picked in Step 1 (read-only); and the Duplicate Case Reason to be submitted to E-Verify, auto-mapped from your reassign reason (read-only). Review it, check the attestation, and click Confirm.

The new I-9 is assigned and the standard notification email is sent. When you later complete Section 2 and the new E-Verify case is created, UZIO automatically sends the mapped duplicate case reason to USCIS.

Scenario E — No E-Verify case exists

Applies when: the employee has an existing I-9 but no E-Verify case. For example, the form is still Pending with Employee or Pending with Employer, or Section 2 was completed and no case was created.

Reassignment proceeds right after the Step 1 reason is confirmed, with no secondary case popup. After reassignment:

• The old I-9 becomes read-only (the Edit & Sign button is disabled).
• The new I-9 is assigned to the employee.
• The standard assignment notification email is sent.

Duplicate Case Reason mapping

When a new E-Verify case is created after Section 2 of the reassigned I-9, UZIO sends a duplicate case reason to USCIS, derived from your Step 1 reason:

Reassigning for multiple employees

When reassigning to several employees at once, UZIO evaluates each employee's case status individually:

Handle excluded employees individually from each one's profile Document tab.

Audit trail

UZIO records every reassignment in full. Captured data includes: old and new I-9 Form IDs, assignment date, employee and employer signed dates, reassign reason (including the free-text for "Others"), duplicate case reason, case closure reason, old and new E-Verify Case IDs, the user ID who performed it, and timestamps. An audit entry is also written when the replacement E-Verify case is created, identifying it as created for a reassignment.

Common problems

I don't know which reassign reason to pick

Pick the one that describes the actual defect in the old form, not the one that sounds most neutral. The reason isn't just an internal note. It maps directly to the Duplicate Case Reason that UZIO sends to USCIS with the replacement case, and the mapping table above shows exactly what each one becomes. Choosing "Others" when a specific reason fits sends USCIS less information than it should have.

The closure reason I need isn't in the list

Closure reasons are fetched live from E-Verify and vary by the case's current status, so the list you see is the list E-Verify considers valid right now. If nothing in it fits, stop. Do not pick the nearest thing. Closure is irreversible, and a wrong closure reason is a compliance record you cannot amend. See Still stuck? below.

If the dropdown is empty rather than wrong, that's the closure-blocked case described in Scenario A.

Nothing happened when I confirmed

If you were assigning several documents together, a blocked I-9 is skipped while the others still assign, so the batch appears to succeed. Check the exclusion message, which lists the employees whose I-9 could not be assigned, and handle each of those individually from their profile's Documents tab.

The reassign option is there but the popup blocks me

You've hit one of the two hard blocks. Unconfirmed Data (Scenario B) requires UZIO Support. Awaiting E-verify Submission (Scenario C) just requires waiting. The case is queued and hasn't reached USCIS yet; it clears itself on the next hourly run.

What happens to the old I-9 after reassignment?

It is set to read-only (the Edit & Sign button is disabled) and retained for audit and compliance. It is not deleted. An employee who has been through a reassignment legitimately has more than one I-9 record and, if cases were created, more than one E-Verify case. UZIO always works against the most recent one.

Does the employee complete Section 1 again?

Yes, from scratch. Nothing is carried over from the previous form, deliberately: a reassignment exists because the earlier data was wrong. The employee is notified to complete Section 1 again, and you then complete Section 2 and create the new case within the normal deadlines.

Can the employee keep working during reassignment?

Yes. But the new I-9 and any E-Verify case still have to be completed within the normal deadlines. Reassigning does not reset the compliance clock in your favour.

Can I reassign for an employee whose work authorization is expiring?

No. Expiring work authorization requires reverification via Supplement B, not a new I-9. Creating a new E-Verify case for a reverification is a USCIS violation.

I reassigned by mistake

A confirmed reassignment cannot be undone, and if it closed an E-Verify case, that closure is final too. See Still stuck? below, and send it promptly. The record of what happened matters more the longer you wait.

Still stuck?

Three situations on this page genuinely need help: an Unconfirmed Data case (only UZIO Support can correct it), a closure dropdown that offers nothing usable, and a reassignment you made by mistake. For any of them, contact UZIO Support. Please reach out to us at support@uzio.com or call +1-571-601-1752.

Send: the employee's name and employee ID, the E-Verify case number (shown as Case ID in the popup) and the status shown, the reassign reason you selected (and the closure reason, if you got that far), a screenshot of the message you saw, and, for Unconfirmed Data, the corrected value for each flagged field. Do not send images of the identity documents themselves.

Related articles

• Reviewing and Verifying Form I-9 (Section 2)
• Completing Section 1 of Form I-9 — the employee's half, in the employee library
• Assigning the I-9 Signatory
• E-Verify Case Statuses and Workflow
• Setting Up Self-Onboarding