The Department of Homeland Security is ending temporary I-9 flexibilities

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced that COVID-19 temporary flexibilities for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, will end on July 31, 2023. U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also announced that employers must complete in-person physical document inspections for employees whose documents were inspected remotely during the temporary flexibilities by August 30, 2023.

This new announcement gives employers additional time to complete in-person physical inspection of identity and employment authorization documents for employees hired during the pandemic who did not undergo the usual physical inspection of documents and annotate the Form I-9 for this population. These flexibilities were initially announced in March 2020 and updated in March 2021.