News

New Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9, to be used immediately

With little fanfare, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) issued a new Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 that employers should start using immediately. The new form reduces by five the number of documents employees may use to prove their eligibility to work in the United States.

Employers may no longer accept the following documents when filling out Section 2 of the form, which asks employers to “review and verify” employees’ identity 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).

Effective immediately

According to CIS spokesperson Bill Wright, employers need to begin using the new I-9 form immediately. “The new form goes into effect today,” he said on Thursday, Nov. 8. A fact sheet on the CIS web site notes that “employers may incur fines and penalties for failing to use the new Form I-9.”

A CIS statement said the five documents were no longer acceptable proof because “they lack features to help deter counterfeiting, tampering, and fraud.”

Due to the short notice, Wright said CIS will grant a 30-day grace period for employers to begin using the new form. “I-9 documentation that is in process now will be okay,” he said. “Employers don’t need to tear it up and start over.”

All of the five now-invalid documents were formerly on the I-9’s “List A” of documents that employees could use to establish both their identities and eligibility to work. All of them are official CIS documents, and all had been acceptable proof of employment eligibility since 1986.

Documents you can use

The pared-down list of documents employees can use to prove their identities and eligibility to work now numbers just five:

1.       U.S. Passport

2.       Permanent Resident Alien Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card

3.       An unexpired foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp

4.       An unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph

5.       An unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record, Form I-94 (showing non-immigrant status and authorization to work).

In addition to reducing the number of acceptable documents, the new I-9 form makes it voluntary for employees to provide their Social Security numbers on Section 1, unless their employers participate in CIS's Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification Program, also known as E-Verify.