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On March 8, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, for immediate use by employers.
By way of background, all U.S. employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for all employees hired on or after November 6, 1986. The purpose of Form I-9 is for employers to document their employees' identity and authorization to work in the United States. USCIS first introduced a revised Form I-9 almost one year ago and invited the public to comment on it. After reviewing the comments and going through several iterations, USCIS issued the revised Form I-9, bearing an edition date of March 8, 2013. Employers have a grace period of two months to continue to use the previous versions of Form I-9 bearing an edition date of either February 2, 2009, or August 7, 2009. On May 8, use of the new Form I-9 will become mandatory and employers that fail to comply may be subject to civil penalties. Accordingly, employers should incorporate the new Form I-9 edition into their compliance procedures as soon as possible, regardless of whether they complete and maintain their records manually or electronically.
Employers may find the revised form at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf.
What Is New About the Form I-9?
Form I-9 has historically been one page, with three different sections. The first section is to be completed by the new employee no earlier than his or her acceptance of an offer and no later than the first date of hire. The second section is to be completed by an authorized representative of the employer no later than three business days from the employee's date of hire, to ensure the employee has properly completed Section 1 and to verify the employee's documents evidence identity and employment eligibility. The third section is to be completed by the employer to reverify that an employee with expiring employment authorization continues to have valid employment authorization after the date of expiration, as indicated by the employee in the first section of the form.
The revisions to the Form I-9 are as follows:
1. The new form has a revised layout. It now consists of two pages (in addition to the list of acceptable documents to establish identity and employment authorization).
2. The new form contains new data fields relating to the employee, including foreign passport number and country of issuance and telephone number and e-mail address (the latter two being optional).
3. The new form provides clearer instructions regarding its completion, including:
Proper completion of Form I-9 is even more critical now that the revised version contains more explicit instructions. It remains to be seen how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will address violations relating to improper completion of the form and whether errors will constitute technical or substantive violations, a distinction that impacts the severity of fines imposed on employers.
Day Pitney Attorneys Daniel Schwartz, Michael Lane and Lindsey Viscomi authored the article, "Don't Be Late Paying Terminated Employees in Massachusetts," for Law360 Employment Authority.
Day Pitney Employment and Labor attorneys Glenn Dowd and Lindsey Viscomi will be presenting "Critical HR Transactions," at the CBIA 2022 Human Resources Conference on March 17 at the Trumbull Marriott Shelton.
Employment and Labor attorneys Heather Weine Brochin, Michael T. Bissinger, Howard Fetner and Trisha Efiom co-authored the article, "Keeping Up With New York's New Employment Laws," published by Employment Benefit Plan Review.
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Day Pitney Alert
Day Pitney Employment and Labor Partner Rachel Gonzalez was featured in the Diverse Lawyers Network newsletter for being a recipient of the Executive Women of New Jersey Salute to the Policy Makers Award.
Day Pitney Press Release
Employment and Labor Partner Glenn W. Dowd is quoted in the Hartford Business Journal article, "Many CT Businesses Breathe 'Sigh of Relief' After Federal Vaccine Mandate is Withdrawn."
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Attorneys Kritika Bharadwaj, Benjamin E. Haglund, Theresa A. Kelly, Naju R. Lathia and Elizabeth J. Sher represented the firm at the South Asian Bar Association of New Jersey (SABA-NJ) 2021 Annual Gala on October 1 at The Marigold in Somerset, NJ.
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This website may use cookies, pixel tags and other passive tracking technologies, including Google Analytics, to improve functionality and performance. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. By using our website, you are consenting to our use of these tracking technologies. You can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse to accept cookies, but if you do so, it is possible that some areas of web sites that use cookies will not function properly when you view them. To learn more about how to delete and manage cookies, refer to the support instructions for each browser (e.g., see AllAboutCookies.org). You may locate Google Analytics' currently available opt-outs for the web here.