USCIS Revises Form I-9 Effective February 2

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued formal notice in the Federal Register that it has revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. All employers are required to use the revised Form I-9 for new employees hired on or after February 2. The current version of the form, dated June 5, 2007, will no longer be valid at that time.

The interim final rule and an informational copy of the revised Form I-9 will be available for public comment at www.regulations.gov until February 2.

What Is the Form I-9?

Employers must complete a Form I-9 for all newly hired employees to verify their identity and authorization to work in the United States. As a part of the verification process, employers must complete the Form I-9, retain the form for a statutorily established period of time and make it available for inspection by certain government officials.

The list of approved documents that employees can present to verify their identity and work authorization is divided into three sections:

• List A documents verify identity and employment authorization
• List B documents verify identity only
• List C documents verify employment authorization only

The employee must present either one document from List A or one document from List B and one document from List C. The employer may not specify a document or a combination of documents that the employee must present.

Changes to Form I-9 Requirements

Requirements related to completion of Form I-9 have been revised to improve the security of the employment authorization verification process. These changes include the following.

• Unexpired, valid documents required. Expired U.S. passports and drivers' licenses are no longer acceptable List A and List B documents, respectively. A document containing no expiration date, such as the Social Security card, will be considered unexpired.
• Documentation for citizens of Federated States of Micronesia and Republic of the Marshall Islands added. List A has been amended to include a passport from the Federated States of Micronesia or Republic of the Marshall Islands with Form I-94 or Form I-94A indicating nonimmigrant admission under the compacts of free association between the United States and these nations.
• Temporary I-551 printed notation added. In addition to a foreign passport that contains a temporary I-551 stamp, List A will now include a foreign passport that contains a temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa.
• Forms I-688, I-688A and I-688B eliminated. The Temporary Resident Card and older versions of the Employment Authorization Card are no longer being issued, and those in circulation have expired. These cards are, therefore, no longer acceptable List A documents.

Changes to the Form

Changes to the Form I-9 document include the following revisions.

• In Section 1, "citizen of the United States" and "noncitizen national of the United States" are now separate categories in the employee attestation part of the form. A definition of noncitizen national is added to the instructions to the Form I-9.
• In Section 1, "An alien authorized to work until _/_/_ (Alien # or Admission #______" is replaced with "An alien authorized to work (A# or Admission #_______) until (expiration date, if applicable—month/ day/ year)_/_/_."