COMPLIANCE CORNER
Employers Must Use Revised Form I-9 Today
Employers must complete a Form I-9 for all newly hired employees to verify their identity and authorization to work in the United States. Effective today, April 3, 2009, employers must use a revised Form I-9 for all new hires (and re-verifications). The current edition of the Form I-9, dated “06/05/2007”, will no longer be valid. Employers who continue to use the 06/05/2007 version of the Form I-9 on or after April 3, 2009, may be subject to civil monetary penalties.
The most significant change to the revised Form I-9 is that employers can no longer accept expired documents during the I-9 verification process. The interim final rule also narrows the list of acceptable identity documents.
The revised form is available on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website in English or Spanish.
The revised Form I-9:
- In “Section 1. Employee Information and Verification”, of the revised Form I-9, an employee can now attest to being either a citizen or non-citizen national of the United States. Non-citizen nationals are persons born in American Samoa, certain former citizens of the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and certain children of non-citizen nationals born abroad.
- Requires that all documents presented during the verification process be unexpired;
- Eliminates List A identity and employment authorization documentation Forms I-688, I-688A, and I-688B (Temporary Resident Card and outdated Employment Authorization Cards). These documents are no longer issued by USCIS;
- Adds foreign passports containing certain machine-readable immigrant visas to List A;
- Adds to List A as evidence of identity and employment authorization valid passports for citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), along with Form I-94 or Form I-94A indicating nonimmigrant admission under the Compact of Free Association Between the United States and the FSM or RMI
Technical updates:
- Three documents have been added to List A (Documents that Establish Both Identity and Employment Authorization) of the List of Acceptable Documents:
- A temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa in addition to the foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp; and
- A passport from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with a valid Form I-94 or Form I-94A indicating nonimmigrant admission under the Compact of Free Association Between the United States and the FSM or RMI; and
- The new U.S. Passport Card, which USCIS earlier announced was an acceptable document for I-9 purposes
- A temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa in addition to the foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp; and
- Three documents were removed from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents:
- Form I-688, Temporary Resident Card;
- Form I-688A and I-688B, Employment Authorization Card(s)
- Form I-688, Temporary Resident Card;
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