The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced several temporary policy changes introducing flexibility into the normal I-9 or E-Verify Employment Authorization verification process.
- Effective May 1, 2020, employers will be allowed to temporarily accept identity documents on “List B” that expired on March 1, 2020 or later, such as drivers’ licenses that could not be renewed because of COVID-19 closures of state motor vehicles departments. Affected employees will later need to provide an unexpired document within 90 days of DHS’s eventual termination of the temporary policy. Read the announcement for more details.
- On May 1, 2020, DHS instructed agricultural employers who do not use E-Verify about how to complete the I-9 form when they hire H-2A seasonal agricultural visa workers who are the subject of increased flexibility under a temporary rule change that took effect on April 20, 2020. Under the COVID-19 related rule change, an H-2A visa holder already in the country whose work with one employer has ended can begin work with another employer if an extension of stay petition was filed with USCIS on the worker’s behalf on or after March 1, 2020 and is still pending, without having to wait for the petition’s approval. Read the announcement for more details about how employers can properly complete Form I-9 in these circumstances.
- We have noted previously announced temporary changes to the normal I-9 or E-Verify completion requirements here.