The Form I-9 Changes Yet Again

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued yet another revision to the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The previous version was imposed on employers less than a year ago (released November 14, 2016; effective date January 22, 2017), and now that employers are finally getting accustomed to the version released in November, they must quickly adapt to the even newer Form I-9, as its use is mandatory effective September 18, 2017.

The revised Form I-9, which you can download from USCIS is a modest update to the Form I-9 dated November 14, 2016. In the revised Form I-9 instructions, the name of the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices has been changed to reflect its new name, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section. Less notably, in the instructions, “the end of” has been removed from the phrase “the first day of employment.”

The List of acceptable documents has received some minor updates as well. The Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) has been added to list C and will now be selectable from the drop-down menus available in List C of Sections 2 and 3. It will also be available for selection for E-Verify users when creating a case for an employee who has presented this document for Form I-9. Additionally, the certifications of report of birth issued by the Department of State (Form FS-545, Form DS-1350, and Form FS-240) have been combined into selection C#2 in List C, and with the exception of the Social Security card, all List C documents have been renumbered.

USCIS has included these changes in the revised Handbook for Employers: Guidance for Completing Form I-9 (M-274).

This post was co-authored by Jennifer Fowler-Hermes and Ryan P. Portugal.

Jennifer Fowler-Hermes
jfowler-hermes@williamsparker.com
941-552-2558

Ryan P. Portugal
rportugal@williamsparker.com
941-329-6626