USCIS Revises I-9 Employment Eligibility Form

Murali Bashyam

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) is now available for use. All employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each employee hired in the United States.
 
The revision seeks to achieve full compliance with the document reduction requirements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), which reduced the number of documents employers may accept from a newly hired employee during the employment eligibility verification process.  
 
Key to the revision 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); and the unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571). The forms were removed because they lack sufficient features to help deter counterfeiting, tampering, and fraud.
 
Additionally, the most recent version of the Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766) was added to List A of the List of Acceptable Documents on the revised form. The revised list now includes: 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); and an unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record (Form I-94) for nonimmigrant aliens authorized to work for a specific employer.
 
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that employers must transition to the revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) no later than December 26, 2007. All employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each employee hired in the United States.  The new form should be used for new hires after December 26th or for employees where an I-9 reverification  will take place after that date.
 
On November 7, USCIS announced the availability of the revised version of Form I-9 (includes the revision date – (Rev. 06/05/07)N printed on the lower right corner of the form) which is now the only version valid for use. In that November 7 announcement,USCISexplained that employers would have 30 days, beginning on the date the Federal Register notice is published, to transition to the revised form. Accordingly, effective December 26, 2007, employers who fail to use the revised form will be subject to applicable penalties. 
 
Both the revised form and the “Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9″ are available online at THIS LINK.  


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