On November 14, 2016, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a revised version of the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form which will be mandatory on January 22, 2017. The revised form can be accessed and now completed online from the USCIS website.
The revised form includes a number of changes designed to make it more “user-friendly” and alleviate common mistakes during the completion process, such as drop-down menus, instructional text and real-time error messages. Additionally, a user will now be alerted if certain fields are left blank or completed incorrectly. The new form is also designed to ensure that identity and employment authorization credentials, provided by the employee for use in completing Section 2 of the form, are consistent with the employee’s citizenship/immigration status reflected in Section 1. Printed instructions are no longer attached to the actual form, but can be accessed directly through links on the form or as a separate document which is consistent with current USCIS practice. Despite the new features, employers can continue to print a blank form from the website and complete it by hand.
Although the current form with a revision date of 03/08/2013 is still valid, we recommend that employers begin familiarizing themselves with the revised form prior to the effective date of January 22, 2017.