Builders and Contractors Exchange
Weekly Bulletin: 1 feb 2008
USCIS Updates Form I-9
By: Mara S. Mijal
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") announced on November 7, 2007 that a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 is now available for use. Employers must use the revised Form on or after December 27, 2007 or face potential penalties.
With the new Form I-9, the USCIS seeks to achieve full compliance with the requirements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996, which reduced the number of documents employers may accept from newly hired employees during the employment eligibility verification process. The USCIS did not update Form I-9 at that time and is only now implementing some of the changes required by IIRIRA.
The most significant change to the revised Form I-9 is the elimination of five documents from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents. These five documents include the 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), and the unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571). These forms were removed from the List of Acceptable Documents because the government has determined that they lack sufficient features to guard against counterfeiting, tampering, and fraud.
The USCIS has advised that the updated Form I-9 should be completed in exactly the same way as the old one was; the only difference is that the types of documents that employers may accept in Section 2 have been updated. Further, employers may wish to note that they need to complete the new version of the Form I-9 only for new employees, or when current employees require re-verification. Employers do not need to complete new Forms for existing employees who do not require re-verification.
The revised Form I-9 and related "Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9" are available online at the USCIS website. If you have specific questions about Form I-9 or the employment verification process for non-U.S. citizen employees, you should contact an immigration attorney.
Questions?
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This article is meant to bring awareness to this topic and is not intended to be used as legal advice.