On January 31, 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) introduced a new version of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The new version of the form has a revision date of 10/21/2019 on the lower left-hand corner and is set to expire on 10/31/2022.
Employers may continue to use the previous version of Form I-9 until April 30, 2020. On May 1, 2020, this latest new version of Form I-9 (with the 10/21/2019 revision date) is the only version of the form that can be used – all previous editions will no longer be accepted.
The new Form I-9 is fairly similar to the last version with USCIS making minor revisions to the form. Most of the changes are in the instructions, and include the following:
- For electronic or “smart” forms, USCIS added Eswatini and North Macedonia to the “Country of Issuance” (Section 1) and “Foreign Passport Issuing Authority” fields (Section 2) based on name changes for these countries.
- Clarifications as to who can act as an authorized representative on behalf of an employer (providing that “an authorized representative can be any person you designate to complete and sign Form I-9 on your behalf”).
- Updated USCIS website addresses.
- Acceptable document clarifications — USCIS has added a notation regarding List C #7 documents, indicating that the List C Employment Authorization Document issued by DHS does not include the Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766) from List A.
- Updates on how to request a paper Form I-9.
- Updates to the DHS Privacy Notice.
As a reminder, the new I-9 form must only be used for new hires. Employers must never ask existing employees to complete new I-9 forms when new editions come out.
Feel free to check out our Top 10 Practice Pointers for the I-9 Process.
