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November 14, 2007
USCIS
REVISES FORM I-9,
THE
EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION FORM
WASHINGTON — U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on November 7, 2007, that a
revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) is now available
for use. All employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each
employee hired in the United States.
The revision seeks to achieve
full compliance with the document reduction requirements of the Illegal
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA),
which reduced the number of documents employers may accept from newly
hired employees during the employment eligibility verification
process.
Key to the revision is the
removal of five documents from List A, which are documents that
prove both identity and employment eligibility. The removed documents
include:
1.
Certificate
of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-570);
2.
Certificate
of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570);
3.
Alien
Registration Receipt Card (Form I-151);
4.
Unexpired
Reentry Permit (Form I-327); and
5.
Unexpired
Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571).
These documents were
removed because they lack sufficient features to deter counterfeiting,
tampering, and fraud.
Additionally, the most recent
version of the Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766) was added to
List A of the List of Acceptable Documents. The revised List
A now includes:
1.
U.S.
passport (unexpired or expired);
2.
Permanent
Resident Card (Form I-551);
3.
Unexpired
foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp;
4. Unexpired
Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph (Form I-766,
I-688, I-688A, or I-688B); and
5. Unexpired
foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record (Form I-94)
for nonimmigrant aliens authorized to work for a specific employer.
The USCIS encourages
employers to use the Form I-9 with a revision date of June 5, 2007
immediately. The revision date of the Form I-9 is printed on the
lower right corner of the form and states “(Rev. 06/05/07)N”. DHS will
publish a Notice in the Federal Register, which will establish the
date that employers will be required to use the updated I-9
form. This notice is expected to be published
very soon.
If you have any questions
about I-9 Compliance or in need of an I-9 Audit, please call our attorneys
at GoffWilson, P.A. at 603-228-1277.
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