What's New With Form I-9? New Version from USCIS

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services published another change for Form I-9 on July 17, 2017. Form I-9 is the Employment Eligibility Verification form for employers. The previous edition, dated 11/14/16 may be used until September 17, 2017. As of 11/17/17, the new edition, with date 7/17/17 must be used.

What is the change?

One major change to the form can be found in the list of acceptable documents. The list of documents was changed to include Form FS-240. This form is the "Consular Report of Birth Abroad" which is issued to individuals born abroad with a U.S. citizen parent.

The form instructions now also clarify a timing issue. The instructions used to require that Section 1 was completed by the end of the first day of employment, but the instructions now read that the section must be completed "by the first day of employment." This change may affect policies of employers, so employers may need to revisit their practices.

In addition, the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices, otherwise known as "OSC" changed its name to the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, or "IER." This change will hopefully limit confusion among similar-sounding government agencies. The agency investigates unfair documentation practices during the I-9 process, and prosecutes these violations.