U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the official revised Form I-9 containing new revision dates, improved instruction fields and an additional page with new data fields which has been released today. While the new I-9 Form has been through multiple public comment periods since May of 2012, USCIS has only now indicated that they are ready to release the fi
Implementation
and Revision Dates
The new Form I-9, released today from the Federal Register, has a revision date of “(REV.
03/08/2013)N” for employers to comply with their employment eligibility
verification responsibilities. USCIS
will provide all employers with a 60-day grace period to adopt and implement
the new Form I-9, after which, all prior versions of the Form I-9 can no longer
be used by the public. If an employer
fails to use the new Form I-9 when processing newly hired employees, they may
be subject to penalties imposed under the Immigration
and Naturalization Act (INA). Employers utilizing our electronic I-9 Form
will automatically have access to the new Form I-9 before the end of the 60-day
grace period. We have already started to
program the new I-9 Form in our application and are simply waiting for the
final version to be released by USCIS, so we can complete the update to the
electronic Form I-9. As noted by USCIS,
you can continue to use the current I-9 during the 60-day grace period.
Employers who currently use I-9
forms to verify the employment eligibility of their employees do not need to
complete a new form for those individuals, unless re-verification is
necessary. If unnecessary verification
is imposed, the employer may be subject to penalties based on a violation of
the anti-discrimination provision of the INA.
Changes
to the Form I-9
Although the form will have an
additional page, USCIS states in the announcement that “The newly revised Form
I-9 makes several improvements designed to minimize errors in form
completion. The new additions to the
form are:
- The addition of data fields for employee’s foreign passport information (if applicable), telephone number and email address.
- Improved instruction fields for the form.
- Revision of the forms layout expanding it from one to two pages (not including the form instructions and the Lists of Acceptable Documents).
Upon the release of the official
revised Form I-9, Form I-9 Compliance, LLC will begin completing its extensive
programming of the revised Form I-9 for all system users. Form I-9 Compliance will be providing weekly
updates as to the official release date of the Form I-9, in its electronic
platform. Form I-9 Compliance will
complete all updates to the electronic I-9 and ensure that the new form is
integrated with the newest version of E-Verify during the 60-day grace period.