Employers that were taking advantage of the COVID-19-related flexibility will have until August 30, 2023, to do in-person verifications of employment documents that were only inspected virtually.
Background
In March 2020 the Department of Homeland Security announced that Employers with employees taking physical proximity precautions due to COVID-19 will not be required to review the employee’s identity and employment authorization documents in the employee’s physical presence. However, employers must inspect the Section 2 documents remotely (e.g., over video link, fax or email, etc.) and obtain, inspect, and retain copies of the documents, within three business days for purposes of completing Section 2.
Employers also should enter “COVID-19” as the reason for the physical inspection delay in the Section 2 Additional Information field once physical inspection takes place after normal operations resume. Once the documents have been physically inspected, the employer should add “documents physically examined” with the date of inspection to the Section 2 additional information field on the Form I-9, or to section 3 as appropriate.
What's changed?
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on May 4, 2023 that employers will have 30 days to reach compliance with Form I-9 requirements after the COVID-19 flexibilities sunset on July 31, 2023. These flexibilities were first announced in March 2020 and subsequently extended throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. DHS encourages employers who have been using those temporary flexibilities to plan ahead to ensure that all required physical inspection of identity and employment eligibility documents is completed by Aug. 30, 2023.
Employers that were taking advantage of the COVID-19-related flexibility will have until August 30, 2023, to do in-person verifications of employment documents that were only inspected virtually.
How to do in-person inspections
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has provided a very useful FAQ as well as instructions on how to notate the Form I-9 when inspected in-person after originally being inspected virtually.
Recommended Next Steps for HR teams
If you haven’t kept a list of those employees whose documents were inspected virtually, pull that information together and determine who will serve as your authorized representative to inspect the documents in-person.
Once you know whose documents need to be inspected and their work location, you may be able to save both time and money on travel with a bit of strategy. You can have different authorized representatives for different regions.This job can be assigned to anyone you’d trust with a sensitive task. Given that employers are liable for any violations in connection with the form or the verification process, you should choose someone who can pay attention to detail and train them on exactly how you want the verification done. You can also outsource the role of authorized representative to a law firm, notary, or someone else who can legally offer this service.
Finally, consider having someone from your HR team remotely oversee the in-person inspection (via phone call, video, or messaging app) to ensure a consistent process is followed as well as to be available to address any questions or concerns from the employee or person acting as the authorized representative.