The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), recently announced an extension of the Form I-9 flexibilities first announced in March 2020 and updated in March 2021. On February 18, 2022, President Biden issued a notice on the continuation of the state of the National Emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic (“COVID-19”). Due to the continued safety precautions related to COVID-19, DHS will extend the updated flexibilities until October 31, 2022.
On March 20, 2020, in response to public health guidance and precautions related to COVID-19, DHS announced that it would exercise prosecutorial discretion to defer the physical presence requirements of the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) under Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This policy only applied to employers and workplaces that were operating remotely. If there were employees physically present at a work location, no exceptions to the in-person verification of identity and employment eligibility documentation for Form I-9 were implemented at that time.
On March 31, 2021, and effective April 1, 2021, DHS provided an update – which will still be in effect through this extension – to its Form I-9 flexibilities. For more information, please see the March 2020 guidance and 2021 update.
Employers should monitor the DHS and ICE websites for additional updates regarding the status of Form I-9 completion flexibilities.
For more information, contact Claiborne Guy at claiborne.guy@agc.org or 703-837-5382.