Revised Form I-9 Implementation Deadline is 4/30/2020

Employers who haven't yet started using the latest version of the Form I-9 for new hires have until April 30th, 2020, to incorporate the revised form into their hiring process. Back on January 31st, 2020, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Division (USCIS) published a Form I-9 Federal Register notice announcing a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, that the Office of Management and Budget had previously approved on October 21st, 2019. This latest version (version 10/21/2019) contains minor changes to the form and its instructions.  Per the Federal Register notice published in January, employers can continue using the prior version of the form (Rev. 07/17/2017 N) until April 30th, 2020.   After that date, businesses can only use the new form with the 10/21/2019 version date. The version date is located in the lower left corner of the form. The only changes on the form itself were revisions to the Country of Issuance field in Section 1 and the Issuing Authority field (when selecting a foreign passport) in Section 2 to add Eswatini and Macedonia, North per those countries’ recent name changes. (Note: This change is only visible when completing the fillable Form I-9 on a computer.)  Changes to the instructions include clarifications regarding authorized employer representatives and acceptable documents. Any employers who have not yet implemented the 10/21/2019 version must begin doing so by April 30th to ensure full compliance with I-9 documentation requirements.