New I-9 Forms and Employment Authorization

I recently attended a Best Practices in Owning and Operating a Winery seminar and one of the sessions was about employment law. Within the immigration law section, they addressed current trends. One notable change was that on April 3, 2009 a new I-9 form was issued and is required for all U.S. employers. You can download the form from http://www.uscis.gov/i-9 The form was revised to reflect changes in the List of Acceptable Documents.

As an employer you are required to verify the documents presented with the I-9. Some guidelines on verifying the documents are that they must be viewed in the original form, that they correspond to the employee presenting them and that they appear genuine on their face. There are legal considerations if obvious forgeries are not caught. So, familiarize yourself with the acceptable documents and the information they contain. But as an employer you are not required to be a document expert. Examples of acceptable documents can be found at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/m-274.pdf

The employer is required to retain the I-9 form for three years after the employee's date of hire or for one year after the employee's date of termination, whichever is later. It is advisable to not retain documents longer than the time required and to not retain copies of the supporting documents.

Employment Eligibility Verification applies to all employees actually hired and must be completed within three business days of the hire date. I-9s are not required for applicants, independent contractors, subcontractors or any individual that was hired before 11/7/86 who is continuing their employment and have reasonable expectations of continued employment.

I would like to thank Stoel Rives, LLP for hosting the seminar, and for the employment law information they provided. For more information on Stoel Rives, visit www.stoel.com.