The I-9 Form Evolution: Adapting to Changes and Minimizing Hiring Risks
The I-9 form is perhaps the most crucial piece of onboarding paperwork. The pressure is high for Hiring Managers to master the I-9 because of their risk of audit. Since hiring managers onboard dozens–even hundreds–of people in a season, their repetition creates muscle memory, which means it takes less critical thinking to fill out each subsequent I-9 properly. Of course, handwriting might suffer as they get more tired, leading to challenges for office personnel doing data entry later.
While the government's intention with this new version is to make the form more user-friendly, any changes to the I-9 can pose new challenges for employers. A new version requires learning the new form along with a new set of rules, which can mean a painful learning curve resulting in possible errors.
The New Form I-9 is available now. Either form may be used through October 31, 2023. Starting November 1, 2023, only the new form may be used. Employers should expect a spike in errors as hiring managers adjust to the new form and have a plan to review them for errors—if a digital hiring solution is not already in place.
However, if you are a Ganaz customer, you can forget about that learning curve! The Ganaz team has already prepared the new I-9 to go live. That means there is no learning curve and far less risk for your team of human errors. There will be no change in your workflow or in the data that needs to be collected.
For those of you who aren’t yet Ganaz customers, here is a summary of what’s changing. We recommend some practice sessions with your hiring managers so that when they have a line of 20 people in front of them, they can rely on that muscle memory.
Here are a few key points:
The employer and employee sections have been combined from 2 pages to 1 page
The preparer/translator section, required for employers who help the employee enter their info, went from a small box to a full page. (The details are the same; you can list multiple people now if necessary!)
The "re-verification & rehire" section also became a full page. You can leave the page out entirely if you're not using it.
Fields without data must now be left blank rather than writing "NA" or "N/A" in them.
Improved guidance to the Lists of Acceptable Documents to include some acceptable receipts, guidance, and links to information on automatic extensions of employment authorization documentation.
You can find the US Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) official summary of the changes here.