Final Rule Revises List of Acceptable Form I-9 Documents

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a final rule that permanently revises the list of acceptable documents for employment eligibility verification on Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The final rule makes no changes to an interim rule that has been in effect since April 3, 2009. The final rule goes into effect on May 16, 2011 [USCIS News Release, 4/15/11; 76 FR 21225-21232, 04/15/2011].

Form I-9. An employer must complete a Form I-9 for all newly-hired employees to verify their identity and authorization to work in the United States. Employees may give their employer documents from any of the following three lists to verify their identity and employment authorization: List A: this list includes documents that establish both identity and work eligibility. List B: this list includes documents that are used to verify the identity of the individual. List C: this list includes documents that are used to verify an individual's eligibility to work in the United States.

The final rule adopts interim rule changes that eliminated temporary resident cards and older versions of the employment authorization card (Forms I-688, I-688A, and I-688B) from List A. The USCIS no longer issues such cards and any that were in circulation have expired. The final rule also adds the following documents to the list of acceptable documents for List A: (i) the new U.S. passport card; and (ii) temporary Form 551, Permanent Resident Card, with printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa. In addition, documentation is added to List A for certain citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to more accurately reflect their status under the Compacts of Free Association.

Employers may continue to use the current version of Form I-9 (rev. 8/7/09) or the previous version of the form (rev. 2/2/09).