Are You Using the Correct I-9 Form?

On November 7, 2007, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (”USCIS”) issued an updated I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form. Employers are required to begin using this new Form I-9 on or before December 26, 2007.

Form I-9 is used to document employment eligibility verification. It is the responsibility of all U.S. employers to complete a Form I-9 for all new workers at the time of hire. Further, the form must be used to reverify employment eligibility upon the expiration of an employee’s employment authorization. When Form I-9 is completed, employees must provide appropriate documentation to establish their identity and employment eligibility. List A of Form I-9 identifies the limited types of documents that an employer may accept to verify identity and employment eligibility.

The revised Form I-9 was issued to reflect a reduction in the number of documents that employers may accept to verify employment eligibility. This reduction in the number of acceptable documents was brought about by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The revised I-9 removes five documents from List A of Form I-9. As a result, employers may no longer accept the following documents: (1) Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561); (2) Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570); Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151); (4) unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327); and (5) unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571).

However, the revised form adds a new document, which is the newest version of the Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766). Although this document has been an accepted means of verifying identity and employment eligibility in the past, it was not previously listed on Form I-9.

Thus, List A now includes the following documents, which employers may use to verify identity and employment eligibility: (1) a U.S. passport; (2) a Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551); (3) an unexpired foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp; (4) an unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph (Form I-766, I-688, I-688A, or I-688B); and (5) an unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Form I-94 Arrival-Departure Record showing nonimmigrant status and authorization to work for the employer.

The updated Form I-9 can be found at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has issued a revised Handbook for Employers, which contains instructions for completing the new Form I-9. The handbook is available at http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/m-274.pdf.

Employers are required to begin using this new form on or before December 26, 2007. Fines and penalties will be imposed for failure to use the new Form I-9 on or after December 26, 2007.