A new year brings a good opportunity to remind employers that there is a new version of the U.S. government’s “Employment Eligibility Verification” form, better known as I-9. All employers are required to verify that every person they hire is eligible to work in the U.S. Employers must view documentation provided by the employee to establish the employee’s identity and work authorization. These documents must reasonably appear authentic and must pertain to the employee.
The new form looks different from older versions but it’s basic functionality is the same. One nice feature is that the new form is a fillable PDF, meaning you don’t have to hand write everything into the form. The new form is dated August 1, 2023 and employers are required to use the most recent version. For this reason, I always recommend downloading a fresh form each time you hire someone new.
Like many things, reading the directions is a good idea, here are the Instructions for Form I-9. There is a list in the instructions which is particularly helpful, I’ve copied it verbatim below:
All employers must:
- Make the instructions for Form I-9 and Lists of Acceptable Documents available to the employee when completing the Form I-9 and when requesting that the employee present documentation to complete Supplement B, Reverification and Rehire. See page 5 for more information.
- Ensure that the employee completes Section 1.
- Complete Section 2 within three business days after the employee’s first day of employment. If you hire an individual for less than three business days, complete Section 2 no later than the first day of employment.
- Complete Supplement B, Reverification and Rehire when applicable.
- Leave a field blank if it does not apply and allow employees to leave fields blank in Section 1, where appropriate.
- Retain completed forms. You are not required to retain or store the page(s) containing the Lists of Acceptable Documents or the instructions for Form I-9. Do not mail completed forms to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
It’s important to have a standard, repeatable process in place at your business to be sure that important things like I-9 are completed correctly every time. We developed an I-9 SOP that may help you to achieve this, find it on our I-9 page.
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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Use the New I-9 to Document Authorization to Work appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal.
