U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today published a notice in the Federal Register inviting public comment on a revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The existing form will expire by 31st August 2012 and the revised form will become effective only after notification from USCIS. Employers must complete Form I-9 for all newly-hired employees to verify their identity and authorization to work in the United States.
Key revisions to the form include:
Expanded Form I-9 instructions and a revised layout: The I-9 has progressed from a single page form to a two-page form. USCIS has given a lot of thought into helping a person fill out the I-9 and extensive instructions are included as part of the revised form. Additionally, the new form clarifies that employers must enter “the employee’s first day of work for pay (mm/dd/yyyy)” in Section 2. The current version of the Form I-9 requires completion of “the employee began employment on (month/day/year) ______”.
New, optional data fields: The new I-9 has fields to collect the employee’s email address and telephone number, both of which are optional. The new form also contains an additional block of fields for entry of document numbers and expiration dates under List A. Additionally, at the top of the second page the employee’s name must be re-entered to complete the form. New data fields to collect the foreign passport number and country of issuance have also been brought into the form. Only aliens authorized to work in the U.S. who have also recorded their I-94 admission number on Form I-9 will need to provide the foreign passport number and country of issuance.
New clauses for attestation: The revised I-9 also requires the employers to attest to the 3 clauses mentioned in the statement to successfully complete and certify the form. The attestation statement has been modified as follows: “I attest, under penalty of perjury, that (1) I have examined the document(s) presented by the above-named employee, (2) the above-listed document(s) appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee named, and (3) to the best of my knowledge the employee is authorized to work in the United States.”
The revised form is viewable here and the public is invited to comment on the revisions until May 29, 2012. USCIS will post information regarding a new Form I-9 on I-9 Central once the form has been finalized. Until a new version is approved and posted, employers must continue to use the current version of the form
