The Department of Homeland Security will end the COVID-19 temporary flexibilities for Form I-9 verification on July 31, 2023. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, employers are required to inspect and verify the authenticity of employee documents in person when completing Form I-9. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the DHS announced that employers would be temporarily exempt from the in-person inspection requirements associated with Form I-9. Since the exemption has been in place, employers with remote employees have not been required to review the employee’s identity and employment authorization documents in person. Rather, employers had the flexibility to review these documents remotely through video conferences, fax, email, or similar methods. This flexibility policy will end on July 31, 2023 and all employers will again be required to verify the authenticity their employees’ Form I-9 paperwork in-person, including for any employees whose documents were inspected remotely pursuant to the flexibility policy.

What This Means for You

If you employed one or more employees during the pandemic who worked from home and you examined their paperwork remotely, you will need to complete an additional in-person physical document inspection by August 30, 2023. Employers may choose to designate an authorized representative or representatives to complete Form I-9s and to perform the in-person physical document inspection on their behalf. This may be helpful; however, the employer – not the authorized representative – remains ultimately responsible for ensuring that the inspection has been done and that the Form I-9s are completed correctly. Employers will be required to perform all future Form I-9 document inspections in-person.

If you have any questions about this or any other employment law issue, please contact S. Whitney Rahman at swr@blakingerthomas.com or (717) 509-7237, Grace C. Nguyen Bond at gcnb@blakingerthomas.com or (717) 509-7226, or Beth Ann Ebersole at bae@blakingerthomas.com or (717) 509-7219.

For more information on this policy change, please refer to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website: I-9 Requirement Update.

**This update is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice or as creating an attorney-client relationship where one does not already exist.**