September Deadline for New Form I-9

New form becomes mandatory Sept. 18

The newest version of the Form I-9 was published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services July 17.

The form, used by HR to verify employment eligibility, will be mandatory beginning Sept. 18.

“Employers will be able to use this revised version or continue using Form I-9 with a revision date of 11/14/16 N through Sept. 17,” the agency said. “On Sept. 18, employers must use the revised form with a revision date of 07/17/17 N.”

Current storage and retention rules have not changed.

“The new version brings very subtle changes to the form’s instructions and a list of acceptable documents, which were created with the theoretical goal of making the form easier to navigate,” said Davis Bae, managing partner of the Seattle office of law firm Fisher Phillips. “Besides changing the wording on the form in almost imperceptible ways, the new version renumbers all List C documents except the Social Security card and streamlines the certification process for certain foreign nationals.”

Switch Over to New Form Now

“Although you will be able to use this new version or continue using the previous Form I-9 through September 17, it makes sense to scrap the use of the November 2016 version and begin using the updated version right away,” Bae said. “You should recycle all older versions you already have printed out, and instruct your hiring managers and human resources representatives to download [the new version] of the form for use with new hires from this point forward.”

Although the changes to the Form I-9 are minimal, failure to comply by the Sept. 18 deadline can result in significant fines. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced increases in fines for Form I-9 violations last year.

“Every change to the Form I-9, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, can have an impact on an employer’s ability to stay in compliance with the law,” said John Fay, vice president and general counsel at the LawLogix division of Hyland Software, a company that specializes in cloud-based I-9, E-Verify and immigration compliance services. “Sometimes, the biggest obstacle is just making your organization aware that a new version exists, particularly for those employers who are still completing the I-9 on paper.”

Click to see the full article published by SHRM.org.