USCIS Interim Final Rule on Form I-9 for Employment Verification Posted Dec 19, 2008 ©MurthyDotCom The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced an Interim Final Rule on December 17, 2008, intended to streamline the current Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) process. The main changes include prohibiting the use of any expired documents, and adding foreign passports with machine-readable immigrant visas to the list of acceptable "List A" documents, establishing identity and employment authorization. ©MurthyDotCom Three Lists of Acceptable Documents ©MurthyDotCom As MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers may recall from our August 23, 2002 article, I-9 Employment Verification Requirements, employers must verify the identity and work authorization of each newly-hired employee within three days of hire. Acceptable documents are split into three lists, termed List A, List B, and List C, depending upon whether they prove identity (List B), work authorization (List C), or both (List A). It is necessary to provide either one document from List A, or one document from List B accompanied by one document from List C. List A documents establish both identity and work authorization within one document. This list includes documents such as a U.S. passport, I-551 Permanent Resident ("green card"), and an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) containing a photograph. List B documents establish identity, only. List C documents establish authorization to work, only. Thus, if one does not have a List A document, s/he must present both a List B and a List C document establishing identity and authorization for employment.  ©MurthyDotCom Expired Documents No Longer Acceptable ©MurthyDotCom The Interim Final Rule specifically states that U.S. passports and List B documents may not be used in the Form I-9 verification process if they have expired. Under prior regulations, such documents were acceptable even if the expired. As part of this rule-making process, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is amending its Form I-9 regulations to exclude such expired documents. In this Rule, DHS explains that expired documents are more prone to fraudulent use than unexpired ones. Thus, for example, even though one's U.S. citizenship does not end with the expiration of the passport, the expired passport is no longer considered acceptable. Documents that do not include an expiration date are considered unexpired. ©MurthyDotCom Pre-Printed Temporary I-551 Notation Acceptable ©MurthyDotCom Current regulations permit the consideration of temporary I-551 (Permanent Resident, or "green card") stamps in unexpired foreign passports for completion of Forms I-9. The Rule adds to List A foreign passports containing specially-marked, machine-readable visas with preprinted, temporary I-551 notations. Such preprinted I-551 notations indicate that these individuals are U.S. lawful permanent residents. ©MurthyDotCom Temporary Resident and Older EAD Cards The Rule eliminates Forms I-688, I-688A, and I-688B (Temporary Resident cards and older versions of the Employment Authorization card/document) from List A. The USCIS no longer issues these cards and all such cards in circulation have expired. ©MurthyDotCom I-9 Form has Additional Information on Interim Final Rule ©MurthyDotCom A December 12, 2008 USCIS press release is available on the USCIS WebSite. The Interim Final Rule [PDF 1.38MB] and a set of questions and answers are also available online. ©MurthyDotCom Conclusion ©MurthyDotCom U.S. employers must use the revised Form I-9 for all new hires, and to re-verify any employee with expiring employment authorization beginning 45 days after publication of this rule in the Federal Register. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) WebSite will make the new Form I-9 available 45 days after publication of the rule. We will continue to track changes to DHS's Form I-9 requirements to share pertinent information, important to employers and employees, many of whom are MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers. Copyright © 2008, MURTHY LAW FIRM. All Rights Reserved
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