Musings on Immigration

Interview with the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce discussing the new version of Form I-9. On March 8, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that effective immediately, all NEW hires by U.S. employers should fill out the new version of Form I-9 , which is identified in the lower, left-hand corner of the form with the label “Form I-9 03/08/13 N”.   Starting May 8, 2013 , use of the new version of the form is mandatory. [We previously reported that employers must start using the new form on May 7, 2013.  However, USCIS has now clarified that the correct date is May 8, 2013.  On March 20, 2013, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reported the following:  The AILA Verification and Documentation Committee took note of the conflicting information contained in the March 13, 2013 Federal Register notice introducing the revised I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification Form and contacted the USCIS Verification Division to...

Today is the first day that the “new” Form I-9 must be used by all U.S. employers. The problem? The new Form I-9 is virtually the same as the “old” Form I-9, but the new Form I-9 disallows an entire segment of the authorized legal work population from using documents they previously used to verify their employment eligiblity from now doing so. The USCIS displayed a callous indifference to the ability of thousands of people, legally authorized to work in the United States, to obtain and retain employment. The Form I-9 was revised as the result of a 1998 change in statute pertaining to employment verification (Yes 10 years ago!). The new Form I-9 fails to account for many situations where people are actually authorized for employment: Omitted is the interim work authorization given by regulation to individuals who are waiting for USCIS to complete its slow process of renewing a work-authorized status. People given haven in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) have no way und...