The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released an updated Employment Eligibility Verification Form (Form I-9). The new Form I-9 is available at https://www.uscis.gov/i-9.
You do not need current employees to complete the new I-9 if you have a properly completed form on file. Employers may continue to use the older Form I-9 (Rev. 10/21/19) through Oct. 31, 2023. After that date, they will be subject to penalties if they use the older form.
The new form has a checkbox to allow for remote documentation examination. This would be used for remote employees that are not able to bring original documentation to your office for review.
- Receive and examine copies of the employee’s Form I-9 documents (or an acceptable receipt) and determine if the documents appear to be genuine. If the documents are two-sided, employers need to examine copies of both the front and back.
- Conduct a live video meeting with the employee. The employee needs to bring the same documents that they sent to the employer so the employer can ensure that they reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the employee.
- Check the box on Form I-9 (Rev. 08/01/23) that an “alternative procedure” was used to examine documentation to complete Section 2 or reverification. If an employer is using the old form (Rev. 10/21/19) they should write “alternative procedure” in the Additional Information field in Section 2.
- Retain clear and legible copies of all documents that the employee sent to complete Form I-9, regardless of whether the documents are from List A, List B, or List C.
All employers are required to maintain completed Form 1-9’s for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date the employment ended, whichever is later.
It is recommended that you maintain all Form I-9’s in one location outside of employee personnel files in case of inspection or audit.