December 23, 2008

USCIS Revises I-9 Process

USCIS has submitted to the Federal Register an interim final rule that would revise the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) process. The interim final rule and a copy of the revised Form I-9 will be available for public comment. Once published by the Federal Register, it can be viewed at www.regulations.gov for a period of 45 days. The current version of Form I-9 (dated 06/05/07) will no longer be valid as of 45 days after publication in the Federal Register.

The interim final rule proposes to narrow the list of acceptable identity documents. The current list of approved documents that can be presented to verify identity and employment authorization is divided in three lists: 1) List A documents, which verify identity and employment authorization; 2) List B documents, which verify identity only; and 3) List C documents, which verify employment authorization only.

The interim final rule would eliminate Forms I-688, I-688A, and I-688B (Temporary Resident Card and older versions of the Employment Authorization Document) from List A. The new U.S. passport card, foreign passports containing specially marked machine readable visas, and documentation for certain citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) will be added to List A. Also, expired documents are no longer acceptable, including an expired U.S. passport and expired identity documents (which were previously accepted). The interim final rule also clarifies that Social Security cards with restrictions on employment are not acceptable List C documents.