NEW COMPLIANCE INFORMATION
FOR ALL EMPLOYERS (AGRICULTURAL AND NON-AGRICULTURAL)
Last week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) made
two major announcements concerning the I-9 Form and H-2A Petitions.
Form I-9
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
branch of the DHS has issued a revised Form I-9, Employment
Eligibility Verification, and M-274, Handbook for Employers,
Instructions for Completing the Form I-9. Employers should
use the new form effective November 7, 2007 on all new hires*
(you will not need to fill out the new form for current employees).
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) mandated a reduction in the number
of documents that employers may accept from newly hired employees during
the employment eligibility verification process. In 1997, the former
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) published an interim final
rule in the Federal Register eliminating some of the documents IIRIRA
slated for removal. However, Form I-9 was not updated to reflect the
revised List of Acceptable Documents at that time. USCIS has revised
Form I-9 to bring it into compliance with the 1997 regulation as a first
step toward achieving the document reduction goals set out in IIRIRA and
as a further step in its ongoing work toward reducing the number of
documents used to confirm identity and work eligibility.
The most significant change to the revised Form
I-9 is the elimination of five documents from List A of the List of
Acceptable Documents. The documents that have been removed from List A
are:
- Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561)
- Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570)
- Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151)
- Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327)
- Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571)
One document was added to List A of the List of
Acceptable Documents:
- Unexpired Employment Authorization Document (I-766)
All the Employment Authorization Documents with
photographs that are in circulation are now included as one item on List
A:
- I-688, I-688A, I-688B, I-766
The new Form I-9 in both English and Spanish
(Employers may use the Spanish version as a translation guide for
Spanish-speaking employees, but must complete the English version and
kept it in the employer’s records) and the Employers Handbook are
available from the USCIS website as downloadable PDFs at www.uscis.gov.
*Employers are required by law to
complete Employment Eligibility Verification forms (Form I-9) for all
employees, including United States citizens.
H-2A Petition
USCIS has also announced that effective December
10, 2007 it will only accept H-2A petitions mailed to its California
Service Center. New York producers should no longer mail their
petitions to the Vermont Service Center. USCIS will return to the
petitioner any H-2A petition received in Vermont on or after December
10, 2007. According to USCIS, this centralization is planned to
streamline the H-2A process and improve service for agricultural
employers. Producers should use the following address:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
California Service Center
ATTN: H-2A Processing Unit
P.O. BOX 10140
Laguna Niguel, CA 92607-1040