U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The Form I-9 is used to collect and document information about an employee’s identity and employment authorization, and must be completed within three days of the employee’s hire and. When completing the I-9 form, the employee must present original documentation proving the employee’s identity and employment authorization, which the employer must review.

Beginning November 1, 2023, only the new Form I-9 dated “08/01/2023” may be used. The version date can be found at the lower left corner of the form. The previous version dated “10/19/2019”, may be used through October 31, 2023, but should be discontinued after that date. The form can be found at https://www.uscis.gov/i-9.

Some of the changes employers will notice in the form include:

• Sections 1 and 2 are reduced to a single-sided sheet. No previous fields were removed. Rather, multiple fields were merged into fewer fields when possible.
• Section 1 “Preparer/Translator Certification” area is moved to a separate, standalone supplement (Supplement A) that employers can provide to employees if and when necessary.
• Section 3 “Reverification and Rehire” area is moved to a separate, standalone supplement (Supplement B) that employers can print if or when rehire occurs or reverification is required.
• The term “alien authorized to work” in Section 1 is removed and replaced it with “noncitizen authorized to work” as well as clarified the difference between “noncitizen national” and “noncitizen authorized to work.”
• The “Lists of Acceptable Documents” page is revised to include some acceptable receipts that may be used temporarily and verify that replacement authorization documents have been requested. This section also has guidance and links to information on automatic extensions of employment authorization documentation.

Employers must maintain a person’s Form I-9 for as long as the individual works for the employer and for the required retention period after the termination of an individual’s employment (either three years after the date of hire or one year after the date employment ended, whichever is later).

If you have any questions about completing Form I-9, contact APEI’s HR loss control specialist, Carleen Mitchell.