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Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced flexibility in Form I-9 requirements. The DHS has announced a temporary policy regarding expired List B identity documents used to complete Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. According to this, the List B identity documents, "State ID" or "Driver's License" are acceptable even if they are expired on or after March 1, 2020. Also, the DHS announced flexibility in Form I-9 physical document review. Employers while onboarding the New Hires, can put on hold the in-person verification of Form I-9 employment eligibility documents until the COVID-19 national emergency is terminated. In accordance with these requirements, we have enabled few system level changes in Form I-9 Processing. The changes that have been made in the system are explained in detail in the following sections.
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As an I-9 Administrator or as an Authorized Representative, when you are completing Section 2 for employees with "Alien" status, you will notice a new document title "I-797, Notice of Action" added in List C. This document is treated the same as if the employee presented a valid receipt for an acceptable document. After normal operations are resumed, when the employee presents new evidence of employment authorization, then initiate receipt update process and update "I-797, Notice of Action" with the actual document. The employees may present their new EAD or any other acceptable document from either List A or List C as new evidence of employment authorization.
The following example shows the details of completing Section 2 using "I-797, Notice of Action". Click on List C drop down and select "I-797- Notice of Action" from the list.
This document will not be available in List C once the COVID-19 event is deactivatedcomes to an end.
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The following message displays as soon as you select "I-797 - Notice of Action".
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The Section 2 page displays as below. Replace The "I-797-Notice of Action with the actual documents." shows in the Document Title in List C. Replace "I-797- Notice of Action" with the actual documents.
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If you save the activity without providing valid Employment Authorization document, then the system displays the following error message.
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According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Form I-797 - Notice of Action showing approval of the EAD application is acceptable for completing Form I-9 when reverifying the current employees. Employees who require Reverification may present this document for completing Form I-9 until the COVID event is disabled-19 national emergency is passed.
The following example shows the details of completing Section 3 using "I-797, Notice of Action" when the event is activeduring COVID-19. Click on the Document Title and select "I-797- Notice of Action" from the drop down.
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The following message displays as soon as you select "I-797 - Notice of Action".
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Enter other details of the document and complete Section 3. When the New Hire presents actual document, initiate Reverification Correction and replace I-797 - Notice of Action with the new document.
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How
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to complete Form I-9 tasks after the COVID-19 event ends?
The Form I-9 requirement flexibility which was granted earlier this in the year 2020 in the event of COVID-19, is going to end by the end of this yearhas been extended to 2021. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced Dec May 31, 2020 2021 as the end date for the flexibility in Form I-9 physical document review and the temporary policy on List B documents. Till now, there have been several extensions for the end date by DHS and the latest is until the end of this year.
As per the DHS announcement, the physical verification of employee’s employment eligibility documents must be completed within three days after the event is disabled. Also, the transactions with expired List B Document accepted as a receipt during COVID-19 event with reason code ‘COVID-19: RUP’, must be updated with a valid unexpired document within 90 days. Keeping in view of these requirements, two App Engines are going to be scheduled to run after the COVID-19 event is disactivated. The first AE (SI9_CVD19_PI) runs only once after the COVID-19 event ends to target the transactions with 'COVID-19: Physical Inspection Delay' and initiate the Section 2 correction process, and the second AE (SI9_CVD19_RU) will be scheduled to run in recurrence for 90 days after 3 days of inactivation of the COVID-19 Event i.e from 4th day of the event termination to capture the ‘Receipt Update Required’ transactions and initiate the Section 2 Correction process.
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These transactions will be captured when the first AE runs for Physical Inspection Delay. The transactions that have been completed with "COVID-19: Physical Inspection Delay" during COVID-19 period will be identified by this AE and I-9 Section2 correction process is initiated for such transactions. The I-9 Specialist must complete the physical verification of employee's employment eligibility documents and record the details in Section 2. This process must be completed within three days after COVID-19 event expiry to keep up with the Form I-9 compliance.
The I-9 Specialist will receive an email notification with the total number of Form I-9s that are affected by the first AE. A sample email notification is given below:
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For all the affected transactions, the I-9 Section 2 correction page will be auto completed with Reason "Add/Update Notes in Addl Info” and E-Verify "No" by default. When I-9 Section2 correction process is initiated, the process routes to Section 2 activity bypassing the I-9 Section 2 Correction Reason page. After Section 2, there will be no E-Verify for these transactions. In case, if E-Verify is pending such as in Receipt Update Required transactions, then they will have E-Verify activity routed when picked up by the second AE.
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After running the First AE, you can access the I-9 Section2 Section 2 Correction process in My Task console or through Elasticsearch My Tasks.
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When clicked on “Complete I-9” link, the Section 2 page opens in edit mode. The section Section 2 correction Correction process inherits COVID-19 related Additional Information reason codes “COVID-19: Physical Inspection Delay” and “COVID-19 EXT: Extended Indefinitely” from the primary flow. This, you You can observe this in the Additional Information field.
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In this example, we are saving section Section 2 without changing the documents.
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After running the First AE, you can access the I-9 Section2 Section 2 Correction process in My Task console or through Elasticsearch My Tasks.
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When clicked on “Complete I-9” link, the Section 2 page opens in edit mode. The Section 2 correction Correction process inherits COVID-19 related Additional Information reason codes “COVID-19: Physical Inspection Delay” and “COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required” from the primary flow. This, you can see You can observe this in the Additional Information field.
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In this example, we are saving section Section 2 without changing the documents.
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Note: After save, the “COVID-19: Physical Inspection Delay” reason code displayed in the Additional Information will disappear. Check “I Agree” and click on “Electronically Sign” button to complete Section 2.
Note: This transaction will be picked up for the Receipt Update process and go through the E-Verify activity when the second AE is run.
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After running the First AE, you can access the I-9 Section2 Section 2 Correction process in My Task console or through Elasticsearch My Tasks.
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When clicked on “Complete I-9” link, the Section 2 page opens in edit mode. The Section 2 Correction process inherits COVID-19 related Additional Information reason code “COVID-19: Physical Inspection Delay” from the primary flow. This you You can see observe this in the Additional Information field.
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The transactions that have been completed with "COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required" during COVID-19 period will be identified by the second AE and I-9 Section2 correction process is initiated for such transactions.
The I-9 Specialist will receive an email notification with the total number of Form I-9s that are affected by the second AE. A sample email notification is given below:
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When I-9 Section2 correction process is initiated, the process routes to Section 2 activity bypassing the I-9 Section 2 Correction Reason page. The I-9 Section 2 correction page will be auto completed with Reason "COVID-19 Receipt Update Complete” and E-Verify "Yes" by default. Since the receipt transactions do not go through E-Verify in their primary flow, the correction process routes to E-Verify activity after completing Section 2.
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Few scenarios with examples are explained below:
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Below example shows Section 2 Correction completed for the Physical Inspection Delay with pending Receipt Update.
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After running the second AE, access the I-9 Section2 Section 2 Correction process in My Task console or through Elasticsearch My Tasks.
My Tasks Console:
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Elasticsearch My Tasks:
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When clicked on “Complete I-9” link, the Section 2 page opens in edit mode. The Section 2 correction process inherits COVID-19 related Additional Information reason code ““COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required” from the primary flow. Also, an additional note “COVID-19 Receipt Update Complete” is added in Additional Information. This can be seen in the Additional Information field.
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If you have already entered actual document details in the I-9 Section 2 Correction process which was initiated when the First AE was run for the physical inspection delay, then there is no need to change the document details unless required when you save/sign section Section 2.
If the actual documents were not entered in the previous process, then enter unexpired documents in List B and save/electronically sign.
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In the above case, if you save/sign the activity without changing the documents or enter expired documents, then the system will display the following error message.
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After completing Section 2, the process routes to E-Verify activity. Click on “Create Case” button to continue to DHS verification.
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Case 2: COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required with COVID-19: Documents Physically Examined
Primary flow: Section 2 is completed with COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required and COVID-19: Documents Physically Examined.
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After running the second AE, you can access the I-9 Section 2 Correction process in My Task console or through Elasticsearch My Tasks.
My Tasks Console:
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Elasticsearch My Tasks:
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When clicked on “Complete I-9” link, the Section 2 page opens in edit mode. The section Section 2 Correction process inherits COVID-19 related Additional Information reason codes “COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required” and “COVID-19: Documents Physically Examined” from the primary flow. Also, an additional note “COVID-19 Receipt Update Complete” is added in Additional Information. This can be seen in the Additional Information field.
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Enter unexpired List B identity documents provided by the employee and save/electronically sign.
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If you save/sign the activity without changing the documents or enter expired documents, then the system will display the following error message.
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Note: After save, the “COVID-19: Documents Physically Examined” reason code displayed in the Additional Information will disappear.
Check “I Agree” and click on “Electronically Sign” button to complete Section 2.
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After completing Section 2, the process routes to E-Verify activity. Click on “Create Case” button to continue to DHS verification.
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