USCIS announces the new Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification

In September 2016 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officially confirmed that the newest and revised Form I-9 will be made available by the end of November 2016. American employers may continue using the current version of the Form I-9 (with revision date 03/08/2013) until January 21, 2017. After this date, all previous versions of the form will render invalid.

The updated Form I-9 has undergone the revision and approval of over 130,000 stakeholders. This builds the expectations of improvements even higher, especially after the fact that employers have been impatiently awaiting the official release of the revised form ever since the current I-9 expired on March 31, 2016.

The newly revised and updated form contains a variety of new features such as structural changes, revised instructions, and layout modifications. Employers must be aware of the changes in detail, as they have been designed to better and ease the overall employment eligibility verification process. The expiration date of the new Form I-9 will be August 31, 2019.

Important note: The new Form I-9 is not electronic only. Employers will still be required to fill out the form online using Adobe Reader. However, they will also need to print it, obtain handwritten signatures and store it in a safe place, similar to all official documents. Furthermore, they will be required to monitor closely any updates of reverifications and retype the information into E-Verify - an online USCIS system for work authorization of U.S. citizens or foreign nationals.

Form I-9: What has changed?

Following is a summary of the updates and changes implemented in the new Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.

1. A separate instructions sheet from the actual Form I-9 is provided. Employers are still required to present it to all employees, filling out the form.
2. The updated Form I-9 will not require foreign citizens who are already authorized to work to provide both their passport number and Form I-94 number within section one of the application.
3. Informative tooltips are added to all fields.
4. Validation on specific fields with the aim of aiding with the validation of the requested information such as a specific number of digits or order.
5. A new “Citizenship/Immigration Status” informative field was added in section 2.
6. Additional buttons allowing users to easily access the instructions of the Form I-9 electronically as well as to print/save/modify them or start over.
7. Additional spaces where the information of multiple translators is required.
8. Section 1 - Personal Information will now require updating only other last names used instead of all other names. This is so with the aim of avoiding any possible discrimination against transgender and other individuals who have changed their first names.
9. An updated barcode or a QR code that will be generated after the form is printed.
10. A separate area was created for employers to add any additional relevant information such as Optional Practical Training extensions.