On July 17, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) released a revised Form I-9.

While the revised form does not change storage and retention rules, it does include subtle changes to the form’s instructions. For instance, the instructions to Section 1 have been revised to remove “the end of” from the phrase “the first day of employment.” Also, the form introduces a new name for the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices: The Immigrant and Employee Rights Section.

The most notable change to the Form I-9 relates to USCIS’s List of Acceptable Documents, which has been revised to reflect the most current version of the certification of report of birth issued by the U.S. State Department. Specifically, the new Form I-9 compiles all birth certificates issued by the State Department (Form FS-545, Form DS-1350 and Form FS-240) into selection C#2 in List C. The revised form also renumbers all List C documents, except the Social Security card.

The USCIS has also added the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) to List C, which is issued to employees born overseas to parents who are American citizens. Employers completing the Form I-9 online will now be able to select Form FS-240 from the List C Section 2 and Section 3 drop-down menus. Also, employers using E-Verify will be able to access Form FS-240 when creating cases for employees who present this form to verify employment eligibility.

What does this mean for you? Effective September 18, 2017, all employers must begin using the new Form I-9. For now, employers will be able to use the revised version or continue using Form I-9 with a revision date of 11/14/16 until September 17, 2017. Failure to comply by the September 18, 2017 deadline may result in fines.

For more legal updates, check out our update for September 2017!