New Form I-9

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced changes to its Employment Eligibility Verification Form (Form I-9) on November 7, 2007. All employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each employee hired in the United States.  Employers should use the newly revised Form I-9 for employees hired from today forward. Current employees DO NOT need to fill out a new form.

In conjunction with the revision of Form I-9, five documents have been removed from List A of the documents that may be accepted as evidence of work authorization:

• 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)

One document was added to List A:

• Unexpired Employment Authorization Document (I-766)

Employers may now sign and retain completed Form I-9’s electronically. Employees are no longer obliged to provide their Social Security number in Section 1 of the Form I-9, unless their employer participates in E-Verify.

The new Form I-9 and instructions are available here. In addition, more detailed information on Form I-9 is provided in the Handbook for Employers—Instructions for Completing the Form I-9 (Form M-274 (Rev. 11/01/2007)), which can be found here. 

 
This Employment Law Note is written to inform our clients and friends of developments in labor and employment relations law. It is not intended nor should it be used as a substitute for specific legal advice or opinions since legal counsel may be given only in response to inquiries regarding particular factual situations. For more information on this subject, please call Sebris Busto James at (425) 454-4233.