Amended I-9 Form Now Required for Employees

November 26, 2007 - Effective today, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) has issued a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) that must be used for all new employees hired in the United States. The revision was announced on November 7th and became effective after being published in the Federal Register on November 26.

The key change made in the I-9 Form is the removal of five documents for proof of both identity and employment eligibility. They include:

• Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-570)
• Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570)
• Alien Registration Receipt Card (Form I-151)
• The unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327)
• The unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571)

Additionally, the most recent version of the Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766) was added to List A of the List of Acceptable Documents. The revised List A now consists of:

• A U.S. passport (unexpired or expired)
• A Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551)
• An unexpired foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp
• An unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph (Form I-766, I-688, I-688A, or I-688B)
• An unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record (Form I-94) for nonimmigrant aliens authorized to work for a specific employer.

The final few changes made to the I-9 Form include:

• An indication in the instructions that the employee is not obliged to provide the Social Security Number in Section 1 of I-9 Form unless he/she is employed by an employer who participates in the E-Verify program.
• Information in the section on Photocopying and Retaining I-9 Form about electronically signing and retaining I-9 forms.
• A change in the estimated reporting burden under the Paperwork Reduction Act to reflect the latest estimates
• Format, font, organization, and grammar changes in the text in order to make the I-9 Form more readable and user-friendly

Employers are encouraged to start using the revised Form I-9 immediately. The revised form became effective once the notice was published in the Federal Register and, at that time, became the only valid version of the form. As a transitional period, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has decided not to seek penalties against an employer for using a previous version on or before December 26, 2007.

Previously, DHS had been withholding enforcement of penalties for violations associated with the changes made by the 1997 interim rule as a temporary transitional measure. With the Form I-9 amended, that policy is no longer necessary and will also end on December 26, 2007.

Both the revised form and the "Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9" are available online at www.uscis.gov. Forms can also be ordered by calling USCIS toll-free at 1-800-870-3676. For forms and information on immigration laws, regulations, and procedures, call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283.

A copy of the Federal Register notice can be accessed here: Federal Register - Form I-9 Changes

BACKGROUND

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) mandated a reduction in the number of documents that employers may accept from newly hired employees during the employment eligibility verification process. In 1997, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) published an interim final rule in the Federal Register eliminating some of the documents IIRIRA slated for removal.

However, Form I-9 was not updated to reflect the revised List of Acceptable Documents at that time. The revised Form I-9 presented in the Federal Register on November 26 is that document and meets the requirements of IIRIRA. According to the USCIS, having the I-9 Form in compliance with the 1997 regulation is a first step toward achieving the document reduction goals set out in IIRIRA and as a further step in its ongoing work toward reducing the number of documents used to confirm identity and work eligibility.