The temporary flexibilities for Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification), which were implemented due to COVID-19, will come to an end on July 31, 2023. Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made an announcement that employers must conduct in-person physical inspections of identity and employment authorization documents for employees whose documents were previously inspected remotely during the temporary flexibilities. This inspection process must be completed by August 30, 2023.

This latest announcement provides employers additional time to carry out the in-person physical document inspections and make necessary annotations on the Form I-9 for this specific group of employees. These flexibilities were initially introduced in March 2020 and were subsequently updated in March 2021. You can refer to the I-9 Central Questions and Answers for more information.

Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking last year, proposing alternative procedures allowing for remote document examination for Form I-9. DHS is currently expecting to publish a Final Rule in the Federal Register, which will formally implement this proposal.

Source: USCIS