January 29, 2009
The revised I-9 form and accompanying interim final I-9 regulations are scheduled to go into effect on February 2, 2009. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has stated that it has concerns regarding inadequacies in the proposed interim final regulation and the proposed form, such as "a failure to address documentation of employment authorization for aliens who are authorized to work, but who present special circumstances." As a result of these concerns and the tremendous amount of work involved in preparing for implementation of the revised form and the interim final rule, AILA is urging the Immigration Service to suspend the effective date for 60 days, pending full review of comments submitted in response to the interim rule published in the Federal Register.
The Form I-9 must be completed by employers for all newly hired employees. The purpose of the form is to verify the identity and work authorization of all newly hired employees. The documents employees can present to verify their identity and work authorization are divided into three lists: List A documents verify identity and employment authorization; List B documents verify identity only; and List C documents verify employment authorization only.
According to USCIS, the new rule eliminates Forms I-688, I-688A, and I-688B (Temporary Resident Card and older versions of the Employment Authorization Card/Document) from List A. These cards are no longer issued and all cards in circulation are now expired. The rule also adds to List A two acceptable documents: (1) A temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa in addition to the foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp; and (2) foreign passports containing specially-marked machine-readable visas and documentation for certain citizens of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Other changes to the revised Form I-9 include revisions to the employee attestation section, some technical changes to the list of acceptable documents, and the addition of the new U.S. Passport Card to List A.
