DHS Publishes Final Rule on Form I-9; No Additional Amendments to Current Form

On April 14, 2011, the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a final rule that adopts, without changes, a 2009 interim rule that changed Form I-9, the Employment Eligibility Verification form. As a result of the interim rule, beginning on February 2, 2009, employers were required to use the new form to verify all new hires and to reverify any employee with expiring employment authorization. There were several key changes made to the Form I-9 by the interim rule that have now been adopted by the final rule.   Employers are no longer permitted to accept expired documents, including an expired U.S. Passport, as documentation to prove identity and employment eligibility.  The rule also added a new document to the list of acceptable documents that evidenced both identity and employment authorization, and it made several technical corrections and updates. A current version of Form I-9 can be found on the USCIS website.