On April 15, 2011, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule, effective May 16, 2011, governing the types of acceptable identity and employment authorization documents and receipts that an employee may present to an employer when completing Form I-9. The final rule adopts without change an interim rule that was published on December 17, 2008, and has been in effect since April 3, 2009.
All U.S. employers must complete and retain a 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 examine the employment eligibility and identity document(s) an employee presents to determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the individual and record the document information on the Form I-9.
Employers do not file Form I-9 with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or USCIS. Instead, Form I-9 must be kept by the employer either for three years after the date of hire or for one year after employment is terminated, whichever is later. The form must be available for inspection by authorized U.S. Government officials (e.g., Department of Homeland Security, Department of Labor, Department of Justice). Although it may be used for reference, the Spanish version of Form I-9 may be filled out by employers and employees in Puerto Rico ONLY.
The list of acceptable documents that employees may present to verify their identity and employment authorization is divided into “List A” documents, which show identity and employment authorization; “List B” documents, which show identity only; and “List C” documents, which show employment authorization only.
The main changes made by the interim rule and adopted by the final rule include:
- prohibiting employers from accepting expired documents;
- revising the list of acceptable documents by removing outdated documents and making technical amendments; and
- adding documentation applicable to certain citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Because the final rule makes no changes to the interim rule, USCIS will not be issuing a new Form I-9. Employers may continue to use the current Form I-9 (Rev. 08/07/2009) or the prior version (Rev. 02/02/2009).
You can access and download the current Form I-9 from Compliance Poster Company’s Free Posters page here. You can also access and download the complete USCIS’ I-9 Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9 (M-274), updated on Jan. 5, 2011, from Compliance Poster Company’s Free Posters page.