By Matthew Thompson

On Friday, March 8, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) published a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 for use. All employers are required to complete a Form I-9 for each employee hired in the United States.

Improvements to Form I-9 include new fields, reformatting to reduce errors, and clearer instructions to both employees and employers. The Department of Homeland Security has published a Notice in the Federal Register informing employers of the new Form I-9.

Effective 03/08/13:

• Employers should begin using the newly revised Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13)N for all new hires and reverifications.
• Employers may continue to use previously accepted revisions (Rev. 02/02/09)N and (Rev. 08/07/09) Y until May 7, 2013.
• After May 7, 2013, employers must only use Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13)N.

The revision date of the Form I-9 is printed on the lower left corner of the form. Employers should not complete a new Form I-9 for current employees if a properly completed Form I-9 is already on file. A Spanish version of Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13)N is available on the USCIS website for use in Puerto Rico only. Spanish-speaking employers and employees in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories may use the Spanish version for reference, but must complete the English version of the form.

The revised forms are available in English and Spanish online at http://www.uscis.gov/.

These changes may raise your attention to the possible need to audit your current Forms I-9 and policies and procedures for compliance related to completion of Form I-9. If you have any questions about the new forms, or would like to discuss an internal audit of your I-9s and compliance polices, please feel free to contact James Prappas at 713.752.4298 or jprappas@jw.com; Jay Strimel at 713.752.4471 or jstrimel@jw.com; or Matthew Thompson at 713.752.4470 or mthompson@jw.com.