It looks like the I-9 form may be staying the same for at least a little while. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that no changes will be made to the current form as it issues a final rule adopting the interim rule that modified the I-9 about two years ago.

According to the USCIS press release, the changes finalized by this rule were intended to "improve the integrity" of the I-9 form. To that end, one of the biggest changes that came about when the interim rule was first enacted on April 3, 2009, was that employers could no longer accept expired documents. According to the USCIS' Questions and Answers on the final rule, expired documents are "prone to tampering and fraudulent use," so that is why they are no longer acceptable.

The rule also changed which types of documents could be accepted to verify an employee's eligibility to work in the United States. Many outdated forms, such as the Temporary Resident Card and outdated Employment Authorization Cards, which were List A documents, were removed. Some new List A documents, such as foreign passports containing temporary I-551 printed notations, were added.

Again, this announcement will not result in any changes in the actual I-9 form. Employers can continue to use the current version (Rev. 08/07/2009) or the previous version (02/02/2009).

Debbie Fledderjohann is the President of Top Echelon Contracting, Inc.