The list of rules U.S. businesses are to comply with is long. It includes regulations related to immigration. It is vital for businesses to keep their practices, including their practices regarding the hiring of workers from other countries, in compliance with all relevant immigration regulations. Being accused of failing to comply with such rules could get a business into some serious hot water.
So, among the things it can be important for companies to be aware of is when changes occur regarding key immigration-related requirements. A change is currently being made that regards one of the more prominent immigration-related requirements for businesses, the I-9 requirement.
Under U.S. immigration law, employers are required, for any hire (whether the hire is a U.S. citizen or from another country), to use Form I-9 to verify the person’s identity and authorization to work.
The recent change touching on this requirement is that a new I-9 form has been released. The new form contains some revisions to the form’s language and format and some changes aimed at making it easier to do the form on computer.
This new version of the form will soon be the required version. Specifically, once Jan. 22, 2017 hits, employers will have to submit the new form to comply with the I-9 requirement. Both the new form and the prior version of the form will be accepted prior to that date.
One wonders how smooth the transition to the new form will go and what overall impacts the new form will have on I-9 compliance efforts by businesses.
When changes have occurred in the forms or processes related to the immigration requirements a business is subject to, skilled lawyers can help the business with determining what kinds of changes it may want to make in its compliance practices to ensure it properly addresses the changes.
Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “USCIS Revises Form I-9, Used for All New Hires in U.S.,” Nov. 14, 2016