New I-9 Form Takes Effect Tomorrow, April 3, 2009
A United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regulation that revises the list of documents employers may accept to verify a worker's identity and United States employment authorization takes effect on Friday, April 3, 2009, after being postponed earlier this year. On April 3, 2009, employers will also be required to use a new edition of Form I-9, dated February 2, 2009.
Employers were originally to begin implementing the new form and rule on February 2nd of this year, but both were put on hold as part of the federal government's broad review of regulations that were originally introduced by the Bush Administration. There is a possibility that the government could further postpone the regulation and form, but employers should nonetheless prepare for both to take effect on schedule on April 3rd.
Minor Revisions to List of Acceptable Documents
The new edition of Form I-9 contains a revised "List A" - the list of documents that establish both a worker's identity and his or her employment authorization. The following documents have been added to List A on the new edition of Form I-9:
- Foreign passports containing the I-551 permanent residence notation printed on a machine-readable immigrant visa. Previously, List A included only the I-551 passport stamp and I-551 permanent resident card;
- The new U.S. Passport Card, which USCIS previously announced was an acceptable document for I-9 purposes; and
- Passports and certain other documents for citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Forms I-688, I-688A and I-688B have been eliminated from List A. They are outdated employment authorization and temporary resident cards. Form I-766, the current version of the employment authorization document (EAD card), remains on List A. In addition, beginning April 3, 2009, employers will no longer be able to accept expired documents for I-9 purposes.
How This Affects You
There are very little substantive changes to the revised version of the Form I-9. However, beginning on April 3, 2009, employers must begin utilizing the updated form. Until April 3, 2009, employers should continue to use the June 5, 2007 edition. Both editions of the form, along with an updated version of the I-9 Handbook for Employers, are available at http://www.uscis.gov/i-9.
We will provide further information as soon as it becomes available.
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