Labor & Employment Law

Reminder - Employers Must Use New I-9 Form Starting December 26, 2007

All U.S. employers must use the new Form I-9 beginning next week on December 26, 2007.  Failure to transition to the new form could result in penalties.  The new I-9 can be downloaded from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services' website here. 

All U.S. employers are responsible for completion and retention of Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens. On the form, the employer must verify the employment eligibility and identity documents presented by the employee and record the document information on the Form I-9. The list of acceptable documents has been amended in the 2007 version of the Form I-9 and can be found on page 4 of the forms.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notes on its website the following changes to the Form I-9:

Five documents have been removed from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents:

• Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561)
• Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570)
• Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151)
• Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327)
• Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571)

One document was added to List A of the List of Acceptable Documents:

• Unexpired Employment Authorization Document (I-766)

All Employment Authorization Documents with photographs have been consolidated as one item on List A:

• I-688, I-688A, I-688B, I-766

Instructions regarding Section 1 of the Form I-9 now indicate that the employee is not obliged to provide his or her Social Security number in Section 1 of the Form I-9, unless he or she is employed by an employer who participates in E-Verify.

Employers may now sign and retain Forms I-9 electronically. See instructions on page 2 of the Form I-9.

Full post as published by California Labor & Employment Defense Blog on December 20, 2007 (boomark / email).