USCIS Reminds Employers to Begin Using Revised Form I-9

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reminds employers that beginning today they must use the revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (Revision 03/08/13) N for all new hires and reverifications. All employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each employee hired to work in the United States.

Click here for USCIS News Release. Hear are some resources:

Article by John Fay

http://www.lawlogix.com/electronic-i9/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Larry-I-9-2.gif

On Thursday, August 23, 2012, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a new (and mostly improved) Form I-9 for public comment. If this announcement sounds eerily familiar, that’s because this is actually the second round of revisions for America’s most complicated one-page (now turned two-page) form. Earlier this year, the USCIS released a first draft of the proposed Form I-9, which resulted in an astounding number of comments (6,200+) from employers and others interested in employment eligibility verification (and who isn’t these days!) Based on those comments, the USCIS has now made several substantive (and design) changes to both the proposed Form I-9 and the Instructions, which I describe below in detail.
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Notations on Form I-9 OK - According to USCIS

During a Form I-9 workshop held at a conference in February 2013, attendees were told that there should be no superfluous information added to the Form I-9 not requested on the form itself, such as employee ID numbers and such.

A FELS Subscriber called FELS to verify this statement since it is their procedure to write the employee's name and employee ID number at the top of the completed Form I-9 for filing purposes.

FELS was able to track down the offical policy of USCIS regarding this issue. According to USCIS:
"As you and I discussed, the training and information that our office provides to the public/employers is that employers must ensure that the information on stored Forms I-9 is legible. Any additional writing printed on Form I-9 outside of the required information must not interfere with an authorized government official’s ability to read the information on the form but is not disallowed.  In addition, when completing the form highlighting marks, hole punches and staples in the form are acceptable as long as they do not interfere with an authorized official’s ability to read the information on the form.

The link to the I-9 Central Q&A that addresses the “writing outside of the required information” is below.  See the 2nd question in the list of Q&A at this link.  If employers you work with are concerned about the disallowance of this practice they may be encouraged to print this portion of the Q&A from the website (which would provide the link & date on the printing) and save it with their personnel policy manual."

I-9 Central Q&A Link click here

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=91908318c9c64310VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=5c1f8318c9c64310VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD
 

Employer's Guidance under DACA

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting requests, effective August 15, 2012, for consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

As a result USCIS has begun to issue Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) to eligible aliens under the DACA program and employers may begin having employees wanting to change their employment identity. USCIS has published a guide for employers titled "Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: Guidance for Employers." The publication gives employers guidance when a current employee presents a new identity and how to process a Form I-9 in such situations.

Click here for this USCIS guidance publication. See also Deferred Action Implications for Employers, a FELS Newsletter article on the subject of dealing with DACA as an employer. 
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Immigration & Customs Enforcement Releases 

New Form I-9 & Employer Handbook (M-274) Updated

After months of anticipation and waiting, USCIS finally delivered the new Form I-9 March 8, 2013.  Already, the I-9 circuit has been buzzing with comments, questions, and queries.  With the release of the revised M-274 on March 11, 2013, Handbook for Employers, no doubt there will be more questions and comments. Below are links to the updated documents and additional information on the revisions:

Employers will have 60 days to transition to use of the new form -- until May 7, 2013. In the meantime, it is permissible to continue use of the current versions of the form for newly-hired workers. 

Here are six articles providing different perspectives on the updated Form I-9 (source: "6 Must Read Articles on the New Form I-9" by Ann Cun)

1. The Alabama Immigration Law Journal’s Wendy Padilla-Madden, Attorney at Balch & Bingham LLP reminds employers currently using an electronic I-9 system to beware of their system’s compliance with changes in the law. It’s no secret that ICE has repeatedly informed employers of their responsibility for legal compliance no matter what software system is utilized.

2. Nation of Immigrators’ Angelo A. Paparelli, Partner at Seyfarth Shaw, and guest Nici Kersey, Managing Director of Kersey Immigration Compliance LLC, provides a detailed overview of the changes on the Form I-9, along with important insight on why the form changed and its ultimate impact on employers and comprehensive immigration reform.

3. Subject to Inquiry’s Christine Mehfoud, Attorney at McGuireWoods LLP indicated now was a good time for employers to “conduct a comprehensive Form I-9 training” for HR personnel before having them dive right into the new form.

4. Nici Kersey, Managing Director of Kersey Immigration Compliance LLC provides her clients with a detailed four-page Memo on approaching the new Form I-9.

5. Fennemore Craig’s Attorney Jared Leung provides his readers with a helpful list of “To-Do’s” when tackling the new Form I-9.

~~~~~

ICE undertook the revision to create a new form that can be used as a fill-able PDF form, to clarify the instructions and to generally simplify use of the form.

The new Form I-9 is also available in Spanish; this version of the Form I-9 is legal for employment verification in Puerto Rico only; however, employers in other jurisdictions can use the form as a tool to help Spanish-speaking employers under the English version of the form.

As with the current Form I-9, a list of acceptable documents is provided. 

Among the differences between the new Form I-9 and the prior version:

  • two-page format:
  • new data fields for:
    • foreign passport and country of issuance information;
    • telephone number, and;
    • email address.

You can obtain the new Form I-9 at this link or by calling USCIS' National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283.

FELS will be analyzing the new form and providing helpful information about using the new form as it becomes available.  If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at info@fels.net or 800-753-9073.
 
Olive Harvest Labor Shortages Reported

Northern California olive producers are reporting shortages of workers that are hampering their harvest.

Thursday's edition of the Capitol Press carried the story.  "Guys are jumping from one crew to the next crew thinking they're getting a better deal, then you lose a crew for a while and then they come back because they realize it's just as good as where they were," said Scott Patton, a Corning area olive producer. "People are walking off saying they won't pick unless they get so much. Farmers are paying a lot more per ton for picking."

You can read more here.
 
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