Starting Feb. 2, 2009, a newly-hired employee must prove
that he or she is a U.S.
citizen, lawful permanent resident, or alien authorized to work in the United States,
and present a document or combination of documents to establish identity. Employers
must review the documents and complete the Department of Homeland Security's
Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, verifying that the documents
appear to be genuine and actually belong to the prospective employee.
Employers can continue to use the current version of Form
I-9, dated June 5, 2007, until the new Form I-9 and its requirements become
effective on Feb. 2, 2009.
Expired documents are no longer acceptable forms of
identification. Expired documents are open to fraudulent use in the citizenship
verification process, according to United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Requiring unexpired
identity credentials also increases the chance that documents will contain
up-to-date security features.
The interim final rule eliminates Forms I-688, I-688A, and
I-688B (Temporary Resident Card and older versions of the Employment Authorization
Card/Document) as acceptable documents. These are no longer produced and all forms
still in circulation have expired.
The interim final rule adds new documents for its three
list categories. Those documents include foreign passports containing the I-551
permanent residence notation printed on a machine-readable immigrant visa;
passports and certain other documents for citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic
of the Marshall Islands;
and the new U.S. Passport Card.
Employers must use the revised Form I-9 for all new hires
and to reverify any employees whose employment authorization expires beginning
45 days after publication in the Federal Register, Feb. 2, 2009.The interim final rule is available from the
USCIS website and was submitted to the Federal Register on Dec. 11, 2008.
The Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing
the Form I-9 (M-274) will be updated to reflect these changes and will be
available on the USCIS website in the near future. If you have any questions
about the new form or rules, please contact PGPi for clarification.Source:
SHRM
Rick Galbreath, SPHR, is president and founder of Performance
Growth Partners Inc., a full service organizational improvement firm
specializing in HR audits, employee surveys, corporate outplacement services,
customer service assessments, customer service training, supervisory training,
employee handbooks, teambuilding programs and team training, on-call and
project-based HR consulting services, employee retention programs, performance
improvement programs, executive coaching, manufacturing process and operations
improvement consulting, training and programs, strategic planning, employee
retention program, performance improvement programs, interim executive
placement, conference speaking, keynote addresses, business turnaround
consulting and a wide range of other services. Contact Rick toll-free at (877)
739-4747 or e-mail him at rick@performtogrow.com.
