New M-274 Handbook For Employers Fills Gaps in Form I-9 Guidance

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by guest bloggers Susan McConn, Avalyn Langermeier and Kari Konikowski, of FosterQuan, LLC. All three authors are well known experts in the field of Immigration Law and I-9/E-Verify compliance.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently issued new guidance for employers on the Form I-9 process. The Handbook for Employers (Rev. 01/05/2011), also known as the Form M-274, has been updated and revised to provide guidance to employers on how to complete the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The Form I-9 must be completed for every worker hired after November 6, 1986, regardless of whether the employee is a U.S. citizen or not. The following is a summary of the changes found in the revised Handbook:

Employees with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Pages 10 – 11

TPS is a temporary immigration benefit that allows foreign nationals from designated countries to reside and work in the United States for a temporary period of time. The Department of Homeland Security may extend a country’s TPS designation and issue a Federal Register notice to automatically extend expiring Employment Authorization Documents for TPS beneficiaries. Thus, a TPS beneficiary may choose to present an Employment Authorization Document that is expired on its face so long as it has been automatically extended. The challenge to employers is how to determine whether a TPS beneficiary’s expired Employment Authorization Document is valid as a List A document.

The Handbook now provides guidance on how to identify a TPS Employment Authorization Document, how to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security has issued an automatic extension of expiring Employment Authorization Documents, and how to explain that the TPS status was extended on the Form I-9.

J-1 Exchange Visitors & F-1 Students, including F-1s Changing to H-1B Status (“The Cap Gapâ€