ICE sunsets Form I-9 COVID flexibilities, requires compliance by August 30

All U.S. employers are required to complete Form I-9 for employees hired to work in the United States. This form serves to verify an employee’s identity and ability to work in the country. Within 72 hours of hire, employees must present their employer with acceptable identity and employment authorization documents, and the employer must physically inspect the documents to determine whether they’re genuine and belong to the employees.

March 2020 flexibility

At the onset of the pandemic, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) eased employers’ requirement to conduct in-person inspections of identity and work authorization documents, allowing them to review the documents remotely (via email, video, fax, etc.) while taking COVID-19 precautions.

ICE indicated that once normal operations resumed or the flexibilities ended, however, employees who were onboarded using remote verification were to report to their employer within three business days for in-person verification.

April 2021 flexibility modified

Form I-9 COVID flexibilities were amended to state that employees hired after April 1, 2021, must present documents for physical inspection if “they physically report to work at a company location on any regular, consistent, or predictable basis.”

Consider this example: You hired new employees in September 2020. They worked fully remotely from their start date until May 2021, at which time they began reporting to your physical office every Tuesday and Thursday.