By Philip Ripani

On January 23, 2009, US Citizenship and Immigration Services published a revised I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form. The new I-9 reflects interim final rules issued by USCIS in December 2008. The interim final rule and the new I-9 form make the following changes:

· Specifies that expired documents are not considered acceptable forms of identification for work authorization.

· Eliminates from List A Forms I-688, I-688A, and I-688B (Temporary Resident Card and older versions of the Employment Authorization Card/Document) because these cards are no longer issued and those in circulation have expired.

· Adds to List A foreign passports containing specially-marked machine-readable visas, and documentation for certain citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia ("FSM") and the Republic of the Marshall Islands ("RM").

· Adds the U.S. Passport Card to List A.

The new I-9 form also contains technical changes and revises the employee attestation section of the form. Employers should use the new I-9 form (Rev. 02/02/09), beginning on February 2, 2009. The new I-9 form can be found at www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-9_IFR_02-02-09.pdf. Prior to February 2, the current I-9 form (Rev. 06/05/07) may be used.