In a recent symposium sponsored by the Council for Global Migration, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC), made the following note-worthy announcements and/or classification:
- The USCIS will soon release a “smart” online I-9 form to assist employers in completing the forms correctly. The soon-to-be released form will feature drop-down boxes and guides. These new forms will not, however, connect with the governments E-Verify system
- Currently, ten states and the District of Columbia permit undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver license. The USCIS clarified that such documents are valid List B documents for identification purposes on Form I-9. USCIS, however, cautioned that the employer must review the List C work authorization document to ensure that it is genuine and that it accurately matches with the List B document presented by the employee.
- The government clarified an issue raised when an employee divulges to an employer that he or she presented false employment verification documents. If such an employee is terminated, the employer is cautioned that it must apply its “honesty” policy consistently and that termination is also applied to other forms of employee dishonesty. If such, an employee also presents new work authorization documents, termination of such an employee may result in a claim of citizenship status discrimination. As stated in the USCIS Handbook for Employers, the proper way to handle such a situation is”… to complete a new Form I-9, write the original hire date in Section 2, and attach the new Form I-9 to the previously completed Form I-9 and include a written explanation.”