Small Businesses Required to Perform In-Person I-9 Verifications

I enjoy talking about culture, retention, and best hiring practices of HR. However, compliance is an extremely important part of HR, and these new I-9 Regulations will affect small businesses. So this may not be the most exciting newsletter for small businesses, but it is necessary.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that employers in the United States will have until August 30, 2023, to physically inspect the identity and employment eligibility documents of employees whose Form I-9 was completed virtually due to COVID-19 flexibility provisions.

During the pandemic, in-person reviews of employees' original identity and employment authorization documents were deferred. Instead, employers were permitted to conduct virtual or copy reviews of the documents, with the expectation that a physical inspection would occur when normal operations resumed.

Now that flexibility provisions are ending, employers have until August 30, 2023, to perform all required physical examinations of identity and employment eligibility documents for those hired on or after March 20, 2020, whose identity and work eligibility documents were examined virtually or remotely according to the flexibility accommodations. Employers must write "documents physically examined" with the date of examination in Section 2: Additional Information on the Form I-9 or in Section 3, as appropriate.

Employers should consider different scenarios when performing physical reviews, such as the same or different employer representative conducting the review and distinguishing between expired List A or List C documents that require reverification or not. If the employee is not in proximity to the employer, an authorized representative may complete Section 2, and the employer is liable for any paperwork deficiencies in the Form I-9 completed by the authorized representative.

In conclusion, employers in the United States have been given a deadline of August 30, 2023, to complete physical inspections of identity and employment eligibility documents for employees who had their Form I-9 completed virtually due to COVID-19 flexibility provisions. Employers should be aware of the different scenarios and follow the guidelines provided by DHS and ICE. 

This was just announced last week, and we do expect final regulations to come out at some point soon. If there are any changes, we will continue to keep you updated.

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