Thread: Employers Must Transition to New I-9 Form by December 26

http://hr.blr.com/news.aspx?id=77543

Employers Must Transition to New I-9 Form by December 26

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that employers must transition to the revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) no later than December 26, 2007.

The agency made the announcement in the November 26, 2007 edition of the Federal Register.

On November 7, USCIS announced the availability of the revised version of Form I-9, which is now the only version valid for use. The USCIS is giving employers 30 days, beginning November 26, to transition to the revised form. Effective December 26, 2007, employers who fail to use the revised form will be subject to applicable penalties.

The amended Form I-9 no longer lists the following as documents that evidence both an individual's identity and employment eligibility (List A):

The Certificate of United States Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561);
The Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570);
The Form I-151, a long out-of-date version of the Alien Registration Receipt Card ("green card'");
The Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327); and
The Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form 1-571).
The forms were removed because they lack sufficient features to help deter counterfeiting, tampering, and fraud, the agency said.

Additionally, the most recent version of the Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766) was added to List A of the List of Acceptable Documents on the revised form. The revised list now includes:

U.S. passport (unexpired or expired);
Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551);
Unexpired foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp;
Unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph (Form I-766, I-688, I-688A, or I-688B); and
Unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record (Form I-94) for nonimmigrant aliens authorized to work for a specific employer.
All employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each employee hired in the United States. The agency notes that there is no need for employers to complete the amended Form I-9 for current employees for whom there is already a properly completed Form I-9 on file.

Both the revised form and the Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9 are available on HR.BLR.com.

Let's hope this helps to stop the hiring of illegals.

Great!!! Thank you for this update.

I just wonder if they will still find a way to present phony documents to get hired. Maybe it will at least be more difficult now.

It may be MORE difficult, but CRIMINALS will ALWAYS try to find ways to THWART the law! So WE have to REDOUBLE our efforts to KEEP ONE step AHEAD of them!

Any document can be forged - or duplicated.

But just presenting a document doesn't mean the document is valid. It didn't say it has to be a 'valid' document. In other words, I didn't see any provision for verification of those documents.

Without that, it is meaningless.