On July 21, 2023, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a new version of Form I-9 (Rev. 08/01/23).

What is Form I-9? Employers use Form I-9 to verify the identity and employment authorization of all newly hired employees in the United States, whether they are citizens or non-citizens. All employers must examine and verify documents evidencing a newly hired employee’s identity and employment authorization, and they must complete Form I-9 for each employee within three business days of the employee’s start date. Employers must keep the Form I-9 for a designated period and make it available for inspection by authorized government officials.

What are the changes in the new version? USCIS’s announcement indicates that the new version of Form I-9 includes significant changes intended to simplify and streamline the process, including, for example:

• Multiple fields were merged to reduce Sections 1 and 2 to a single-sided sheet.
• Section 1 Preparer/Translator Certification was moved to a standalone supplement to provide to employees on an as-needed basis.
• Section 3 Reverification and Rehire was moved to a standalone supplement for when rehire occurs or reverification is required.
• The term “alien authorized to work” was replaced with “noncitizen authorized to work.”
• The form can be completed using tablets or mobile devices, and certain features have been streamlined to simplify the download process.
• The form will contain a checkbox for employers to indicate that they followed new alternative procedures for document examination.
• The instructions were reduced from 15 pages to 8 pages.

When do employers have to start using the new Form I-9? Employers should download^[1] and use the new Form I-9 beginning Aug. 1, 2023.

USCIS has provided employers with a grace period through Oct. 31, 2023, to transition from the old version to the new version.

Beginning Nov. 1, 2023, the old version will be obsolete, and employers who use the old version will be subject to penalties.

[1] The USCIS announcement states that employers will be able to download it at http://www.uscis.gov/i-9 starting August 1, 2023.