On Friday March 8, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rolled out a brand new version of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification Form, revamping America’s most complicated one page form into a two-page form. In the world of immigration compliance, the release of the new Form I-9 is spectacular news. It’s not every day the government does something that affects every employer in America. The passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) imposed an affirmative duty on employers to verify the identity and work authorization of all persons hired after November 6, 1986. The mechanism to meet this duty became the Form I-9. In fact, federal law requires that every employer (including agricultural recruiter/referrer-for-a-fee hiring) complete a Form I-9 to verify an employee’s identity and employment authorization.

The USCIS announced the Form is to be used immediately and published the details in the Federal Register. USCIS has granted companies until May 7, 2013, a sixty-day grace period, to implement the new Form-9.Thegrace period is designed to provide employers time to revise their Human Resource processes, distribute the forms and to provide electronic Form I-9 systems time to make necessary updates to their software. The “Handbook for Employers Guidance for Completing the Form I-9 (M-274)”has also been updated(3.8.13version)to correspond to the new form and will be reviewed by our team in a separate Immigration Update.