A revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, the form that must be completed by all employers to verify the employment eligibility of every new hire, was introduced on March 8, 2013 and became effective as of that date. The modifications include the expansion of the Form I-9 from one to two pages (not including the “List of Acceptable Documents” and form instructions), additional data fields (such as the new hire’s email address and phone number), enhanced Form I-9 instructions, and a revised layout.
The last day that an employer can use prior versions of Form I-9 is May 6, 2013. The new edition of the Form I-9, marked with a revision date of March 8, 2013, will become the only acceptable version of the form as of May 7, 2013. Until then, USCIS has provided a 60-day grace period during which the current version of Form I-9 will remain valid for use in order to “help alleviate the burden that immediate implementation of the newly revised Form I-9 would have imposed on employers.” Therefore, during this 60-day grace period, employers may continue to use the February 2, 2009 and August 7, 2009 versions of the Form I-9.
Employers do not need to complete the new Form I-9 for current employees for whom there is already a properly completed Form I-9 on file, unless re-verification applies.
