New form becomes mandatory beginning September 18

  • On Monday, July 17, 2017, a newly revised Form I-9 (this link requires Adobe Reader or equivalent PDF viewer) was issued was by USCIS.
  • This one will take the place of the I-9 form issued on November 14, 2016, and there will be a gradual phase-in period until September 17, 2017, during which time both versions both forms can be utilized.  After that date, only the new form will be valid.
  • Change to the time frame for completing the form: Must be done before OR on the first day of employment

The main purpose of this latest update is to address issues involving acceptable documentation for births of U.S. citizens abroad, more particularly, making the Consular Report of Birth Abroad, Form FS-240, an acceptable List C document. USCIS had received numerous complaints from employers that this official document was not acceptable for I-9 purposes. List C has now been revised both on paper and in the electronic version. In fact, all certifications of report of birth issued by the Department of State are now consolidated within selection number 2 under List C. The three acceptable options are Form FS-545 (born before 11/01/1990), Form-1350 (born between 11/01/1990 and 12/31/2010) and the newly added Form FS-240 (born on or after 01/01/2011 and all replacement requests, no matter the date of birth). With this change, only seven listings (but one with three choices) appear under List C.

USCIS took this opportunity to make two other tweaks. One has to do with a name change of a government department from “Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Employment Practices” to “Immigrant and Employee Rights Section.”

The other is a subtle, but potentially significant change in the instructions to the Form I-9. With regard to Section 1, the instructing language had been that employees “must complete and sign Section 1 no later than the end of the first day of employment . . . .” The words “the end of” were removed. No explanation was provided for this change., but prudence suggests that this is an effort to make sure that Section I of the I-9 Form is completed on or before the start of the first day of work and not some eight or more hours later on that very first day. At this juncture, all HR departments are strongly encouraged to review their I-9 policies and procedures and tweak as may be appropriate.  All three changes are reflected in the M-274

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the I-9 Team at Woods Rogers.