April 2013 Newsletter: New I-9 Employment Verification Eligibility Form Available as of March 8, 2013

The Employment Verification Eligibility Form I-9 is used by all U.S. employers to verify employees’ ability to work legally in the U.S. On March 8, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a Federal Register notice updating the Form I-9, and its instructions. Employers may find the revised form at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf. Briefly, the revisions to the Form I-9 include an expansion to two pages; a new format of the list of acceptable documents to establish identity and employment authorization; addition of new data fields, including employee’s telephone number and e-mail address, foreign passport number and country of issuance; revisions of instructions for completing the Form I-9 discussing items such as completion of Section 1 by nonimmigrants, provisions on how to complete the form when a new hire presents a receipt for a required document, instructions on how to reverify an employee's I-9 information, and a revised list of acceptable documents to establish the identity and employment authorization.

Employers should begin using the newly revised Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13)N for all new hires and reverifications immediately. 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 for all new hires and reverifications. 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. Employers should not discard current I-9 Forms already completed for existing or former employees. Please note: I-9 Forms must be maintained for 3 years from the date of hire or 1 year from the date of termination, whichever is later.

For more information, please contact any of the following individuals at Butzel Long: Linda J. Armstrong, Clara DeMatteis Mager, Bushra A. Malik, Reginald A. Pacis or Elissa Noujaim Pinto.

Butzel Long is the newest addition to the Executives-in-Residence program at Mac-OU INC, bringing in business professionals to collaborate with startups for small business success.