How Will the Revised I-9 Form Affect Your New Hire Process?

The Department of Homeland Security has issued changes to the Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification. These changes to the I-9 Form are effective April 3, 2009 and will impact small, medium and large-size businesses across the country. All United States employers are required to use the revised Form I-9, with a revision date of 2/2/09, to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires and reverifications. The revision date can be found on the lower right-hand corner of the form to make sure you are using the most current one. No previous editions of this form will be accepted after April 3, 2009.

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There are several key changes that have been made to the I-9 Form which will impact your new employee hiring process. A number of documents have been added and removed from the List of Approved Documents which business owners and HR managers need to be aware of. In addition, the revised form also includes a new option in Section 1, where check boxes are provided to identify an employee's basis for employment eligibility. The revised Form I-9 separates 'citizen of the United States' and 'noncitizen national of the United States' into two check boxes. The Handbook for Employers - Instructions for Completing Form I-9 has been updated to reflect the new requirements of the revised form.

Employers Will No Longer Be Able to Accept Expired Documents

The primary change to the I-9 is that expired documents will no longer be valid for the purpose of verifying an employee's identity for work authorization. This includes expired U.S. passports. The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service wants to ensure that documents presented for use in the Form I-9 process are valid and reliably establish both identity and employment authorization status. Expired documents may not demonstrate a valid status and are prone to tampering and fraudulent use.

I-9 Form Changes to Approved Documents List for New Employees

Below is a list of the documents that have been added or removed from the List of Approved Documents on the I-9 Form:

Two documents have been added to List A:

• A temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa in addition to the foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp
• 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

Three documents have been removed from List A:

• Form I-688, Temporary Resident Card
• Form I-688A, Employment Authorization Card
• Form I-688B, Employment Authorization Card