Labor & Employment Law Articles

The New Form I-9 and E-Verify

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that beginning on December 26, 2007, employers will be required to use the new Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9. The new Form I-9 is presently available on the USCIS website at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i_9.pdf. Employers may begin using the new form immediately; however, there will be no penalty for employers who continued to use the old form prior to December 26, 2007. Employers who fail to use the new Form I-9 after December 26, 2007 will be subject to fines and other penalties, as mandated by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

While the new Form I-9 is largely consistent with the previous Form I-9, employers should be aware of the following changes:

Employees are no longer obligated to provide their Social Security Number in Section One of the Form I-9, unless they are employed by an employer who participates in the E-verify program.

E-Verify (formerly known as the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program) is a free and voluntary Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees. For more information, or to register for E-Verify, go to www.dhs.gov/E-Verify.

Employers may now sign and retain Form I-9s electronically. However, employers are still required to maintain completed I-9 forms, whether in hard-copy or electronic format, for three years after the employee’s date of hire or for one year after the date the employment is terminated, whichever is later.

An Unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph has been added to Form I-9 List of Acceptable Documents, List A (documents that establish both identity and employment eligibility).

Conversely, the following five documents have been removed from List A of the List 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)

 Thus, the only documents that can be accepted under List A of the new Form I-9 are:

U.S. Passport;

Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card (Form I-551);

Unexpired foreign passport with a temporary Form I-551 stamp;

Unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph (Form I-688, I-688A, I-688B, I-766);

Unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record, Form I-94, bearing the same name as the passport and containing an endorsement of the alien’s non-immigrant status, if that status authorizes the alien to work for the employer.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the new Form I-9 or the E-verify program.