A COVID-era policy is about to expire, changing the requirements for employers verifying the identity of their workers.
Starting May 1, 2022, employers no longer will be able to accept expired identity documents to verify an employee’s work eligibility on Form I-9.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ending a temporary policy, instated due to COVID-19, which allowed the use of expired “List B” identity documents for I-9 purposes. Those identity sources include driver’s licenses and state ID cards.
“Allowing employees to present these expired documents was a temporary policy instituted by the DHS in May 2020 to deal with the fact that various issuing authorities were not able to timely renew documents due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Amy Peck, and attorney in the Omaha, Neb. office of Jackson Lewis, a law firm specializing in labor and employment.
“Now that issuing authorities are returning to more normal operations, this temporary policy is coming to an end,” Peck added.
Not only is the “grace period” ending, but employers also will need to update – by July 31 – the I-9s of current employees who presented expired documents between May 1, 2020, and April 30, 2022.
Peck advised employers to enter the title, number, issuing authority, and expiration date of the new document in the “Additional Information” field of Section 2 of the Form I-9, then initial and date that section of the form.
