New Form I-9 Available August 1, 2023 - and Helpful Update on Remote Inspection of the Form I-9

Finally, some good news from an administrative government agency in 2023!  As of August 1, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) authorized the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) to establish an “alternative document examination procedure.”  In addition, the USCIS has just announced that it will soon issue a new and (allegedly) improved version of the Form I-9, which will also - allegedly - be published on August 1, 2023.

All of that is the federal government’s characteristically roundabout way of announcing that USCIS and ICE have finally decided to permanently authorize remote inspection of Form I-9’s.  This is really good news!

Now, it would not be government action without asterisks, but the Sensenig Law Firm is very happy to report that this is unambiguously good news for employers, particularly those who employ remote workers.  To avail yourself of the remote inspection option after August 1, 2023, the only requirements are that you must be a registered E-Verify user in good standing (don’t worry, you’d know it if you weren’t considered “in good standing” – USCIS / ICE are not exactly subtle about these things), that you must utilize the E-Verify system for the remotely-verified employee, and that you must conduct a “live video interaction” – i.e. a Zoom call – with the remotely-verified employee, during which interaction you must inspect the documents on-camera.  

Aside from the live video element, you might recognize these requirements as nigh-identical to those implemented to allow for remote inspection during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is no accident; these procedures proved themselves to be both effective and popular, so it’s no surprise that USCIS and ICE have chosen to simply continue allowing these proven procedures post-pandemic; after all, why reinvent the proverbial wheel?  

USCIS is still requiring that employees who were certified under the COVID-era remote inspection standards to re-certify their employment eligibility, but they no longer going to require that such re-certification be performed in person.  This is a huge relief and a bit of a surprise, as until just earlier this week, USCIS / ICE had insisted that re-certification would require in-person inspection.  With this latest announcement however, employers who participate in E-Verify will be able to utilize the new, permanent remote inspection process to verify employment eligibility for employees who were on-boarded under the relaxed, COVID-era standards.  For such employees, employers will need to utilize E-Verify and conduct the required live video interaction to re-certify their employment eligibility on or before July 31, 2023, but will no longer need to perform a physical document inspection in order to continue employment uninterrupted.

As to the updated Form I-9, while the new Form should not be all that substantively different than the old I-9 Form, and while the old Form will still be accepted until October 31, 2023, we highly recommend making the switch immediately as of August 1, 2023 – or as soon as it is published - as there is just no reason not to use the new Form I-9.

The Sensenig Law Firm is very happy to finally have some good news to share with our clients for most of our clients for a change!  If you need any assistance or clarification with remote verification procedures, or with E-Verify generally, we’re standing by to help.