From Shusterman’s Immigration Update:

Effective April 3, employers must use a revised Employment Eligibility Verification form (”I-9″) which is dated February 2, 2009. We link to the new I-9 from our “Immigration Forms” page at

http://shusterman.com/immforms.html

Until then, employers must continue to use the I-9 form dated June 5, 2007.The most significant changes in the new form are:

a) Only unexpired documents will be acceptable. For example, where presently an expired driver’s license is acceptable as proof of identity, starting April 3, this will no longer be true;

b) Several new documents have been added to List A (Documents which prove identity and employment authorization) including:

i) Passport Cards;ii) Passports issued by foreign countries which contain a permanent residence notation printed on a machine-readable immigrant visa;

iii) Passport from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with Form I-94 or Form I-94A indicating nonimmigrant admission under the Compact of Free Association Between the United States and FSM or RMI.

c) The following are no longer acceptable List A documents: Obsolete versions of the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) – Forms I-688, I-688A and I-688B. The current version of the EAD (I-766) is still an acceptable List A document.

d) The new I-9 revises Section 1 to differentiate between U.S. citizens and “noncitizen nationals of the United States”. The latter category includes persons born in American Samoa, certain former citizens of the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Northern Mariana Islands) and certain children of noncitizen nationals born abroad.

In addition to using the new I-9 forms, employers should be careful not to run afoul of the antidiscrimination and document abuse sections of the law.

Employers who need additional guidance in complying with the changes in the form and the regulations may wish to read USCIS’ “Handbook for Employers: Instructions for Completing Form I-9 (Revised 4-03-09)” which we link to from our “Employers’ Immigration Guide” at

http://www.shusterman.com/toc-emp.html#9

We also advise employers to have their immigration counsel audit their I-9 forms on a periodic basis in order to assist them in complying with the law and avoiding fines and other penalties.

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