USCIS Publishes New Form I-9

On January 31, 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a new version of the Form I-9 used to verify identity and employment authorization of employees.

What changed?

According to the Federal Register announcement, Eswatini and North Macedonia were both added to the “Country of Issuance” field in Section 1 and the for the foreign passport issuing authority field in Section 2 per those countries' recent name changes. There were several form instructions updated as well:

• Clarified who can act as an authorized representative on behalf of an employer
• Updated USCIS website addresses
• Provided acceptable document clarifications
• Updated the process for requesting the paper Form I-9
• Updated the DHS Privacy Notice

When is the new form required?

USCIS noted employers should begin using the new Form I-9 as of the announcement, January 31, 2020. The current form has a version date of “Rev. 10/21/2019”. While employers may also use the prior version of the Form I-9 (Rev. 07/17/2017 N), after April 30, 2020, employers must use this new version. A failure to begin use of the new form may lead to penalties enforced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The new form is available on the USCIS website.