November 8, 2007

Revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 Is Now Available

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced yesterday, November 7, 2007, that a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 is now available. The Form I-9 must be completed by all employers for each employee hired in the United States within the first three days of hire. Use of the new version of the form will become mandatory once the notice is published in the Federal Register. However, the USCIS is encouraging employers to begin using the form immediately.

The amended version, Form I-9 (Rev. 06/05/07) is not a redesign, only an update.  Basically, the revision reduces the number of documents that employers may accept from newly hired employees to prove work eligibility and identity. These changes reflect the 1997 interim final regulations the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) published codifying the reduction of acceptable documents for I-9 verification pursuant to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

The new form amends the Lists of Acceptable Documents and specifically removes the following five documents:

• Form I-151, Alien Registration Receipt Card;
• Form N-560 or N-570, Certificate of U.S. Citizenship;
• Form N-550 or N-570, Certificate of Naturalization;
• Form I-327, Unexpired Reentry Permit; and
• Form I-571, Unexpired Refugee Travel Document.

It is important to note that one document was added to the list—the most recent version of Form I-766 -Employment Authorization Document (EAD) is now listed as an acceptable List A document joining the I-688, I-688A and I-688B together as acceptable EADs with photographs.  

Interestingly, in its announcement of the revised Form I-9, USCIS noted that new hires are not required to provide their Social Security numbers in Section 1 of the Form I-9, unless the employer is a member of the E-Verify Program.