New Procedures for Employment Form I-9 Begin August 2023

By Mark Zeidman, Attorney/Shareholder and Todd Shadle, Attorney/Shareholder

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a new version of Form I-9 to verify the employment and identity authorization of employees. The new I-9 can be used starting August 1, 2023, and must be used starting November 1, 2023.

The US Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has also announced new procedures:

• Employers who hired during the pandemic must re-examine, in person, any identity and employment authorization documents of those employees if they only examined them virtually or remotely under prior guidelines. This is required by August 30, 2023.

• There is a new option for remotely verifying employees’ identity and employment authorization documents. This alternative procedure may be used starting on August 1, 2023, and does not expire but can be cancelled or amended by the Department of Homeland Security. To use this new option, the employer must:

  • Be enrolled in E-Verify
  • Examine and retain copies of all documents
  • Conduct a live video interaction with the employee
  • Create an E-Verify case if the employee is a new hire

DHS may expand these flexibilities to more employers in the future, but for now, those not enrolled in E-Verify must comply with the previous deadline of August 30, 2023, to perform all required physical examination of identity and employment authorization documents for employees hired on or after March 20, 2020, if the employee’s documents were examined only remotely as was permitted under prior COVID-19 temporary flexibilities.