The Department of Homeland Security has issued a number of temporary policies altering and relaxing certain I-9 requirements due to the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace. You can find those announcements at I-9 Central, but they are each listed separately with varying expiration dates. We’ve compiled all those procedures in one place, so you don’t have to worry about tracking them! Just follow the links for more details on each policy.

  • Most recently, USCIS updated I-9 Central to confirm it will temporarily allow acceptance of an additional document under List C - a Form I-797 Approval Notice for an EAD application, as production of these Employment Authorization Documents (EADs, Form I-766) has been significantly delayed. Keep in mind that only this Form I-797 Approval Notice is permitted - so the notice must be for an approval, it must be an approval of an I-765 Employment Authorization Application, and the Notice Date must be on or after December 1, 2019 through and including August 20, 2020.

    • This provision remains in effect until December 1, 2020.

  • USCIS has implemented specific procedures for completing Form I-9 with certain expired List B documents and with List B documents that have been automatically extended, which are found here.

    • This provision remains in effect until it is withdrawn by USCIS.

  • ICE has extended flexibility in completing Form I-9 virtually, first announced in March, for an additional 60 days. However, this special procedure is allowed only for employers who do not have any employees present at the worksite. For those employers without any employees on-site, they are allowed to review Section 2 documents remotely and retain copies; once normal operations resume, the employer must review the original documents in-person with the employee within three business days.

    • This provision remains in effect until November 19, 2020 (and could be extended again).

    • As an alternative, employers are allowed under the normal I-9 rules to have another person complete Section 2 of Form I-9 as their agent in-person with the employee. Employers remain liable for any mistakes made by the agent, so they need to review this process carefully before implementing it.

  • USCIS has also created special processes for dealing with and reporting E-Verify delays due to COVID-19.

  • Finally, ICE previously announced an extension for employers responding to Notices of Inspection for an I-9 audit, but that policy has expired.

    • The extension for I-9 audit responses ended on August 19, 2020.

*Note: we are not covering provisions related to H-2A/H-2B workers here.