On Monday, April 25, 2022, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is extending the current I-9 compliance flexibility requirements in place, for another six (6) months, due to the continued COVID-19 precautions. The new expiration date for these I-9 compliance accommodations is now set to October 31, 2022.
If employees hired on or after April 1, 2021 work exclusively in a remote setting due to COVID-19 related precautions, they are temporarily exempt from the physical inspection requirements associated with the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) under Section 274A of the INA until they undertake non-remote employment on a regular, consistent, or predictable basis, or the extension of the flexibilities related to such requirements is terminated, whichever is earlier.
Employers may be unable to timely inspect and verify, in-person, the Form I-9 supporting documents of employee(s) hired since March 20, 2020, as described above, in case-by-case situations (such as cases in which affected employees are no longer employed by the employer). In such cases, employers may memorialize the reason(s) for this inability in a memorandum retained with each affected employee’s Form I-9. Any such reason(s) will be evaluated, on a case-by-case basis, by DHS ICE in the event of a Form I-9 audit.
The original DHS guidance on I-9 compliance flexibility requirements was announced back on March 20, 2020.
