The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a final regulation (75 FR 42575, July 22, 2010) concerning the use of electronic signatures and storage for Form I-9s.

Although the changes in the final rule are relatively minor, they provide clarification of some ambiguities contained in the initial rule. The primary changes implemented by this rule are as follows:

• employers must complete a Form I-9 by the third business (not calendar) day after an employee started work for pay;
• employers may use paper, electronic systems, or a combination of paper and electronic systems;
• employers may change electronic storage systems as long as the systems meet the performance requirements of the regulations;
• employers need not retain audit trails of each time a Form I-9 is electronically viewed, but only when the Form I-9 is created, completed, updated, modified, altered, or corrected; and
• employers may provide or transmit a confirmation of a Form I-9 transaction, but are not required to do so unless the employee requests a copy.

From USCIS

On August 27th, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the Office of Management and Budget has extended its approval of Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) to Aug. 31, 2012. Consequently, USCIS has amended the form to reflect a new revision date of Aug. 7, 2009.

Employers may use the Form I-9 with the revision date of either Aug. 7, 2009 or Feb. 2, 2009. The revision dates are located on the bottom right-hand portion of the form.

Staff One clients should begin using the revised I-9 form for all new hires, effective immediately. The new form can be found at www.staffone.com

From HRMorining.com

To further prove that immigration reform is still on the front burner, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced its plan to implement a nationwide audit of employer I-9s.

ICE announced that it’s drawing up Notices of Inspection to review the I-9 records of 652 employers — names not released yet. In some instances, the notices will include subpoenas for records such as

>> quarterly wage reports
>> EINs
>> business licenses
>> correspondence from Social Security Administration regarding no-match letters, and
>> payroll data.

Employers whose I-9-related records don’t pass muster with ICE will then receive Notices of Intent to Fine. Also in the announcement, ICE officials said the audit is just a “first step,” so employers probably can expect more audits and inspections.

What happens if you’re contacted for an audit? Make sure you know:

The name and contact information of company legal counsel. If the company’s legal counsel is not in-house, there should be written instructions for personnel to contact outside counsel immediately.
Who, in HR or otherwise, will be the the company’s representative for the ICE investigation or audit. You’ll want all communication with ICE channeled through that person to avoid redundancy or contradictions in information.
The names of company managers who should be informed of an ICE investigation or audit.
And keep in mind:

>> An investigator may contact you and ask for an interview, but you have the right to refer the investigator to an attorney.
>> An investigator has no right to files and records without a search warrant or subpoena.
>> Once you’re informed of an intent to investigate, take special care to secure all related records. Destruction or loss of records after notification could be seen as an attempt to destroy evidence or sabotage the investigation.

Article: http://www.hrmorning.com/feds-launch-nationwide-i-9-audit/

From USCIS
The current I-9 form lists an expiration date of 6/30/09. However, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the form will remain valid after this date.

On June 26, USCIS asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approved continued use of the current version. While the request is pending, the form will not expire, despite the date listed at the top of the first page. When the extension is approved — and a new expiration date is set — USCIS will update the form. For the time being, continue to use the form dated “Rev. 02/02/09″ at the bottom of each page and the June 30 expiration date at the top.

Note: When the form is updated by USCIS, Staff One will update the form provided to its clients at that time.

From USCIS Website
The applicability date of the final rule requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to begin using U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) E-Verify system has been pushed back by six weeks to June 30, 2009.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (collectively known as the Federal Acquisitions Regulatory Councils) will publish an amendment in the Federal Register tomorrow postponing the applicability of the final rule until June 30, 2009. The rule requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to agree to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their employees was first published on Nov. 14, 2008, and went into effect on Jan 19, 2009.

The extension provides the Administration an adequate opportunity to review the entire rule prior to its applicability to federal contractors and subcontractors.

For more information on E-Verify, visit www.uscis.gov/everify.

Related Document at Applicability Date for E-Verify Federal Contractor Rule Extended (27KB PDF)

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has submitted to the Federal Register an interim final rule that revises the list of documents acceptable for the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, process. The revised form will improve the security of the employment authorization verification process.  Your company will be required to use the revised form for all new hires and to re-verify any employee with expiring employment authorization beginning on April 3, 2009.

The revised Form I-9 reflects changes made to the list of documents acceptable for Form I-9 in accordance with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recent interim final rule. The rule furthers DHS’s ongoing effort to increase the security of the employment authorization verification process.

What is the difference between the revised Form I-9 and the old one?

The biggest difference in the revised Form I-9 is that all documents presented during the verification process must be unexpired. Other than several technical updates, the following documents have been added or removed:

Two documents have been added to List A (Documents that Establish Both Identity and Employment Authorization) on the List of Acceptable Documents:

• A temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa in addition to the foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp; and
• A passport from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with a valid Form I-94 or Form I-94A indicating nonimmigrant admission under the Compact of Free Association Between the United States and the FSM or RMI.

Three documents were removed from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents:

• Form I-688, Temporary Resident Card;
• Form I-688A, Employment Authorization Card; and
• Form I-688B, Employment Authorization Card.

Beginning April 3, 2009, your company may only accept documents listed on the List of Acceptable Documents on the revised Form I-9. When an employee must be re-verified because his or her employment authorization has expired, you should ensure that they use the revised Form I-9 with its new List of Acceptable Documents. You cannot re-verify the employee by completing Section 3 – Updating and Re-verification on a previous version of the Form I-9.

The current edition of Form I-9, dated 06/05/2007, will no longer be valid for use on or after April 3, 2009.  Employers who continue to use the 06/05/2007 edition of Form I-9 on or after that date may be subject to civil money penalties.

The revised I-9 will be available on the Staff One online forms repository beginning on April 3, 2009.

For more details on employment eligibility verification, you can visit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website at www.uscis.gov.

By SHRM Online staff
Officials with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have delayed until April 3, 2009, a requirement that employers must use a revised version of the employment eligibility verification form–known as the I-9 form. According to an interim rule published in December 2008, employers were supposed to begin using the revised verification form on Feb. 2, 2009. However, when President Obama took office, the White House issued a directive to all federal agencies asking them to review any regulations introduced by the Bush administration that had not taken effect before Jan. 20, 2009.

USCIS officials stated that the 60-day delay should provide adequate time to complete a full review of the new form and employment verification requirements. A notice announcing the delay was set to appear in the Federal Register. In addition, the USCIS will reopen the public comment period on the new rule for 30 days, until March 4, 2009. Employers must complete a Form I-9 for all newly hired employees to verify their identity and authorization to work in the United States. The interim final rule as published would have revised the types of acceptable identity and employment authorization documents employers can accept from new hires.