On March 8, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) issued a revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility
Verification, for immediate use by employers.
By way of background, all U.S. employers are required to complete
a Form I-9 for all employees hired on or after November 6, 1986.
The purpose of Form I-9 is for employers to document their
employees' identity and authorization to work in the United
States. USCIS first introduced a revised Form I-9 almost one year
ago and invited the public to comment on it. After reviewing the
comments and going through several iterations, USCIS issued the
revised Form I-9, bearing an edition date of March 8, 2013.
Employers have a grace period of two months to continue to use the
previous versions of Form I-9 bearing an edition date of either
February 2, 2009, or August 7, 2009. On May 8, use of the new Form
I-9 will become mandatory and employers that fail to comply may be
subject to civil penalties. Accordingly, employers should
incorporate the new Form I-9 edition into their compliance
procedures as soon as possible, regardless of whether they complete
and maintain their records manually or electronically.
Employers may find the revised form at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf.
What Is New About the Form I-9?
Form I-9 has historically been one page, with three different
sections. The first section is to be completed by the new employee
no earlier than his or her acceptance of an offer and no later than
the first date of hire. The second section is to be completed by an
authorized representative of the employer no later than three
business days from the employee's date of hire, to ensure the
employee has properly completed Section 1 and to verify the
employee's documents evidence identity and employment
eligibility. The third section is to be completed by the employer
to reverify that an employee with expiring employment authorization
continues to have valid employment authorization after the date of
expiration, as indicated by the employee in the first section of
the form.
The revisions to the Form I-9 are as follows:
1. The new form has a revised layout. It now consists of two
pages (in addition to the list of acceptable documents to establish
identity and employment authorization).
2. The new form contains new data fields relating to the
employee, including foreign passport number and country of issuance
and telephone number and e-mail address (the latter two being
optional).
3. The new form provides clearer instructions regarding its
completion, including:
- Completion of Section 1 of the form by nonimmigrants.
- How employers should complete the form when a new hire presents a receipt for a document rather than the actual acceptable document.
- How and when employers need to reverify an employee's I-9 information.
- Which documents an employer may accept to establish the identity and employment authorization initially and upon reverification.
- A reminder to employers that they must complete the requisite information on the form, even if they attach copies of the new hire's documents to establish identity and employment authorization.
- A reminder that employers may not specify which documents the employee must present to establish identity and employment authorization.
Proper completion of Form I-9 is even more critical now that the revised version contains more explicit instructions. It remains to be seen how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will address violations relating to improper completion of the form and whether errors will constitute technical or substantive violations, a distinction that impacts the severity of fines imposed on employers
Originally published on the Employer's Law Blog
www.daypitney.comThe content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.