• The employee may encounter special situations, such as additional last names and suffixes, non-U.S. addresses, missing SSNs, or the need for a translator.
• It is only acceptable to have an address outside of the U.S. if that address is in Canada or Mexico.

Other Last Names Used (if any): In the “Other Last Names Used (if any)” field, the employee should provide all other last names used (e.g., maiden name).

Employees should enter their full legal name into Section 1 of the Form I-9. If the employee presents documents for Section 2 that contain a suffix (e.g., Jr., Sr.), yet the individual did not include the suffix in Section 1, the documents may still be accepted provided that the question is resolved of whether the documents reasonably relate to the employee.

If the employee has made a mistake in Section 1 by not including the suffix, the employer should ask the employee to correct Section 1 and sign and date the correction.

If, however, the employer determines that any of the documents with (or without) a suffix do not reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee, the employer may ask the employee to provide other documents from the Lists of Acceptable Documents on Form I-9.

Generally, generational (e.g., Jr., Sr., or any other) ambiguities in name are going to be resolved by the Social Security number (SSN) or tax identification number (TIN).

An address outside of the United States: This address can be acceptable, but only in the case of employees who cross the border from Canada and Mexico to get to work in the United States. These employees should enter their city and province (Canada) or city and state (Mexico) in the “City or Town” field. These employees should enter their country abbreviations in the “State” field and should enter their 5- or 6-digit postal code in the “ZIP code” field.

Waiting for Social Security number: For an employee of an E-Verify employer who has applied for a Social Security number but not yet received it, the individual should leave this field blank (if completing the form electronically). After the form has been printed, the employee should write: “Applied for - In Process” in this space before signing and dating Section 1. If the employee otherwise satisfies the Form I-9 requirements, then the employee may work while awaiting the Social Security number. As soon as the number is available, the employer can create a case in E-Verify using the employee’s Social Security number .

Spanish version: If the reason that the employee cannot complete Section 1 on their own is because the employee’s dominant language is Spanish, and not English, the employer may want to provide the employee with the Spanish version of the Form I-9 for translation purposes. Note that this version of the form is only valid for completion by employees in Puerto Rico. A Spanish-speaking employee in any other location may use the Spanish version of the form for translation purposes only.