USCIS Releases Updated Form I-9 and Employer Handbook
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released an updated version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, as well as a revised Handbook for Employers (Publication M-274) with "Instructions for Completing the Form I-0." Employers may not continue to use prior versions of the Form I-9. The new form should be used beginning November, 2007. The instructions regarding Section 1 of the form now indicate that an employee is not required to provide a social security number in that section unless he or she is employed by an employer that participates in E-Verify, a USCIS program used by employers to verify a newly hired employee's identity and work authorization (formerly the Basic Pilot Program and Electronic Employee Verification System).
Background
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 mandated a reduction in the number of documents that employers may accept from newly hired employees during the employment eligibility verification process. USCIS has now revised Form I-9 to bring it into compliance with the 1997 interim rule. The Handbook has also been updated as a companion to the new version of the form.
Updates to List A
Five documents have been removed from List A (proving both an employee's identity and work authorization) of the Lists of Acceptable Documents:
- Certificate of
U.S.
Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561)
- Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570)
- Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151)
- Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327)
- Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571)
One document has been added to List A:
- Unexpired Employment Authorization Document (I-766)
All Employment Authorization Documents with photographs in circulation are now included as one item on list A: I-688, I-688A, I-688B, I-766
I-9 Procedures
There are no changes in the way the new Form I-9 for new employees. The updated form should be completed exactly the same way the old one was. The only difference is the type of documents that employers may accept in Section 2. Employers may not accept documents that used to be on the Form I-9 but aren't now.
Employers only need to complete the 2007 Form I-9 for new employees. They do not need to complete the new forms for current employees. However, employers must use the 2007 Form I-9 when employees require re-verification.
For more information, please see the USCIS Fact Sheet:
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/FormI9FS110707.pdf