Federal Register :: Introduction of a New Version of Employment Eligibility Verification Form

We provide information on employee rights and preventing discrimination in the workplace. The Public Inspection pageon FederalRegister.gov offers a preview of documents scheduled to appear in the next day’s Federal Register issue. The Public Inspection page may also include documents scheduled for later issues, at the request of the issuing agency.

DHS will publish a Federal Register notice to announce the new version of the Form I-9 once it becomes available. However, some of the content may still be useful, so we have archived the page. Monetary penalties for knowingly hiring and continuing to employ unauthorized workers range from $375 to $16,000 per violation, with repeat offenders receiving penalties at the higher end. Penalties for substantive violations range from $110 to $1,100 per violation. 1 Reason offers payroll services with our great service and straight forward pricing to meet just about every business’ needs.

Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site. USCIS issued new or corrected I-797, Notice of Action, receipt notices to certain individuals who did not initially receive information about the up to 540-day Employment Authorization Document auto-extension period. To protect your privacy, please do not include any personal information in your feedback. If you complete and print this form to mail it in, make sure that the form edition date and page numbers are visible at the bottom of all pages and that all pages are from the same edition of the form.

Broadband Policy

This alternate Form I-94 with an ADIT stamp is an acceptable List A receipt for Form I-9 and E-Verify. On June 24, 2023, USCIS will dispose of E‑Verify records that are more than 10 years old, which are those last updated on or before Dec. 31, 2012. E‑Verify employers have until June 23, 2023, to download case information from the Historic Records Report if they want to retain information about these E-Verify cases. The President of the United States issues other types of documents, including but not limited to; memoranda, notices, determinations, letters, messages, and orders. Buchanan new i9 form, effective january 22, 2017 the uscis is finally going to be issuing a new i9 form, which will be effective january 22, 2017.

Take note that using the online “smart” version of the form does not qualify as a compliant electronic I-9. If the online fillable version is used, it must be printed and signed pen to paper. Removing PDF restrictions to ensure that the form can be completed on more electronic devices and systems, with the goal of reducing problems some users have had due to software issues. It is used by an employer to verify an employee’s identity and to establish that the worker is eligible to accept employment in the United States.

The employee must also present his or her employer with acceptable documents evidencing identity and employment authorization. On the form, an employee must attest to their employment authorization. The employee must also present their employer with acceptable documents as evidence of identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine these documents to determine whether they reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the employee, then record the document information on the employee’s Form I-9. The list of acceptable documents can be found on the last page of the form. Employers must retain Form I-9 for a designated period and make it available for inspection by authorized government officers.

The prior form had one field for potentially multiple preparers and translators to fit their signatures in. Patrick Shen, a partner in Fragomen’s Washington, D.C., office, said only the employee can fill out the information in Section 1. When the economy is unstable, employers are faced with difficult decisions around staffing, pay and benefits. Find the latest news and members-only resources that can help employers navigate in an uncertain economy.

Employer Alert: Continue to Use Current Form I-9

Use Form I-9 to verify the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must properly complete Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. On the form, an employee must attest to his or her employment authorization.

Until the ACFR grants it official status, the XML rendition of the daily Federal Register on FederalRegister.gov does not provide legal notice to the public or judicial notice to the courts. Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Please note that all such forms and policies should be reviewed by your legal counsel for compliance with applicable law, and should be modified to suit your organization’s culture, industry, and practices.

It is not an official legal edition of the Federal Register, and does not replace the official print version or the official electronic version on GPO’s govinfo.gov. There are no changes to the document list columns, but dropdown menus common to electronic I-9s are now available on the online form. “The employee needs to affirmatively check a box indicating that he or she did not use a preparer or translator if that’s in fact the case,” Minervino said.

What’s Happening with the I-9 Form? – Siskind Susser PC

Users will notice three tabs on top of the online I-9—Instructions, Start Over and Print—after clicking on the link for the form on the USCIS site. DHS has also increased the fines for paperwork violations to $252 on the low end up to $2,507 per Form as of January 11, 2022. Thus, it is recommended that employers perform regular audits and correct any problems before the government gets involved. Retaining experienced counsel can help to minimize potential liability. Reducing and simplifying the form’s instructions from 15 pages to 7 pages. Online form users also will be directed to the online M-274 Handbook and I-9 Central for all other questions.

These tools are designed to help you understand the official document better and aid in comparing the online edition to the print edition. Document page views are updated periodically throughout the day and are cumulative counts for this document. Counts are subject to sampling, reprocessing and revision throughout the day. One key change is that users must enter N/A in any fields that they previously would have left blank.

Form I-9 Changes Effective November 1, 2022 – What Employers Need to Know.

“Employers must remember that workers can show any document that shows right to work and don’t have to use the same documents they presented when verified previously,” Shen said. Finally, USCIS has added a large box for additional information in section 2. This could be used to notate information that used to have to be scribbled in the margins of the form, such as a foreign national’s Temporary Protected Status or Optional Practical Training information.

For example, if there is nothing to enter in the fields asking for a middle initial, or apartment number or Social Security number, those fields can no longer be left blank. “The form substitutes for training and helps guide people to not make the same mistake over and over again,” Lange said. But she reminded employers that the smart form is not a safe harbor against ICE enforcement, is not integrated with E-Verify nor other HR systems, and cannot store information nor enable reporting. Employers are not required to use the new I-9 on existing employees—one of the most common queries after a new version of the form is released, said Dave Basham, a senior analyst in the verification division at USCIS. USCIS field offices recently started delivering Forms I-94 with ADIT (temporary I-551) stamps as temporary evidence of LPR status without requiring an in-person appearance at the field office. With this new operational process, USCIS has added more ways for applicants to obtain proof of status.

Employers must maintain Forms I-9 for as long as an individual works for the employer and for the required retention period after the termination of an individual’s employment . An employer’s failure to ensure proper completion and retention of Forms I-9 may subject the employer to civil money penalties, and, in some cases, criminal penalties. The OFR/GPO partnership is committed to presenting accurate and reliable regulatory information on FederalRegister.gov with the objective of establishing the XML-based Federal Register as an ACFR-sanctioned publication in the future.

“You can use it to include an E-Verify case number, employee termination date, form retention dates, and any other comments for the employer’s business process,” Miller said. “But make sure whatever comments you write are limited to the Form I-9 or your participation in E-Verify. If your form is the subject of a government investigation, whatever you write on the form is fair game.” Basham said that if an employee is using the online version of the form, Section 2 will self-populate the worker’s full name on page 2.

Employers must enter the corresponding numeral from the employee attestation on page 1. The St. Louis employment attorneys at McMahon Berger have been representing employers across the country in labor and employment matters for over sixty years and are available to discuss these issues and others. As always, the foregoing is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice regarding any particular situation as every situation must be evaluated on its own facts.

As most employers know, completing Form I-9 is one of the most crucial steps in the hiring process. The federal government requires that all U.S. employers complete the form to ensure that companies are hiring people legally allowed to work in the United States. Many employers may not be aware that the Form I-9 requirements were created by the passing of the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. Since that time, the form and the rules on how to complete it have continued to be updated every several years. Although the form is a 2-page document, currently there is a 15-page instruction booklet and over 70 pages in the regulatory manual on completing it. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is announcing a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.

Employers using electronic I-9 systems should not experience any direct impact with this form change, Lange said. Failure to use the new form beginning Jan. 22 will expose organizations to penalties, which were recently nearly doubled. On September 25, 2014, USCIS published the first Form I-9 Webinar On-Demand. Choose the chapters of your choice or watch the entire 22 minute video in one sitting.

• All U.S. employers must properly complete Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States.
• Online form users also will be directed to the online M-274 Handbook and I-9 Central for all other questions.
• Previously, foreign nationals authorized to work were required to provide both an I-94 number and foreign passport information.
• If the online fillable version is used, it must be printed and signed pen to paper.
• “Use the dropdown to select which document was presented,” Basham said.

To use the enhanced features of Form I-9, use the first link to download the form and save it your computer. Use the second link to open a basic form that can be used on a mobile device. A Spanish-language version of the new Form I-9 is also available at /​i-9 for use in Puerto Rico only. More information and documentation can be found in our developer tools pages. News, trends and analysis, as well as breaking news alerts, to help HR professionals do their jobs better each business day. The new form allows for up to five preparers and/or translators to each sign and date the form in his or her own field.

“Use the dropdown to select which encumbrance accounting was presented,” Basham said. “We don’t require HR professionals to be document experts. But HR must accept documents presented by an employee if they reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the individual.” The instructions were more than doubled from six pages to 15 to provide more guidance for users. “The instructions are dense but actually provide a lot of good information to train your HR team,” said Montserrat Miller, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Arnall Golden Gregory. “If someone makes mistakes while entering information onto the form and wants to start over, they can hit the Start Over tab,” Basham said. If the HR professional decides to print out the form to be completed, he or she will need to click on the Instructions tab and print those out as well to give to the worker filling it out.

• This Notice contains the dates of both the prior version and the new version of Form I-9 that employers may use, as well as the date when the prior version will become obsolete.
• On September 25, 2014, USCIS published the first Form I-9 Webinar On-Demand.
• For complete information about, and access to, our official publications and services, go to About the Federal Register on NARA’s archives.gov.
• This could be used to notate information that used to have to be scribbled in the margins of the form, such as a foreign national’s Temporary Protected Status or Optional Practical Training information.

You will see how to complete Sections 1, 2 and 3, best practices and much more. You can open the English or Spanish versions of the form, instructions, and supplements in any browser. To complete your Form I-9, you will need the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Form I-9 is a fillable form, which means you can type your answers directly on the form instead of writing them by hand.