Do you have to reverify an employee’s Form I-9 if his driver’s license expires? What about if an employee’s work authorization expires? The answer is no for one, but yes for the other. Find out which situations require reverification. From HR Matters E-Tips.
Question: When do we need to reverify the Form I-9? Do we have to reverify if an employee’s driver’s license or passport expires? What about when we rehire former employees? Are there other times that we have to reverify an employee’s Form I-9?
Answer: The Form I-9, otherwise known as the Employment Eligibility Verification Form, must be completed and kept on file for each new employee and also must be reverified in certain limited circumstances. You do not need to reverify the Form I-9 when an employee’s driver’s license expires. According to the “Handbook for Employers: Instructions for Completing Form I-9,” publication M-274, provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), employers do no to reverify the Form I-9 when an employee’s identity document expires (List B documents), such as a driver’s license. In addition, the handbook states that you never have to reverify a U.S. citizen’s status, except when they terminate and are rehired (see below). So if a current employee’s passport expires, you do not have to reverify that employee’s Form I-9 either. (You can find a copy of the M-274 online at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/m-274.pdf)
Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act regulations found in 8 C.F.R. §§274a.2(b)(1)(vii) and 274a.2(c) that explain the Form I-9 requirements, you must reverify work eligibility in two circumstances: (1) if an individual’s employment authority expires; or (2) if an individual who was previously employed by the organization is rehired. Reverification may be handled on the Form I-9 originally completed for the employee.
If an employee’s work authorization expires, you must reverify in Section 3 of the Form I-9 that the employee is still authorized to work in the United States. Reverification must be completed no later than the date on which the employment authorization expires.
The employee must present proof of employment eligibility in the form of any of the documents allowed by the Form I-9 to show continuing eligibility or a new grant of authorization to work. The employee does not have to present a new version of the same document presented initially. Further, you cannot accept receipts showing that the employee has applied for an extension of an expired employment authorization document. When received, you should note the new document’s identification number and expiration date on the Form I-9.
(Note that reverification is not required simply because an employee’s resident alien card (also known as the Form I-551, Permanent Resident Card, or “Green Card”) expires. These cards are typically issued with a 10-year expiration date, no expiration date, or a 2-year expiration date. In these cases, the employee’s worker eligibility status has not expired, only the card has. However, a new employee may not use an expired resident alien card initially to show employment eligibility and authorization. See the “Handbook for Employers: Instructions for Completing Form I-9,” publication M-274.)
When you rehire a former employee, you may update the ex-employee’s original Form I-9 if the ex-employee is rehired within three years of the original hire date and the form indicates that the individual is still eligible for employment. You then simply can note the date of rehire on the form. If the previously completed Form I-9 shows that the individual’s employment authorization has expired, you must reverify the individual’s employment eligibility according to the Form I-9 requirements and record the document’s identification number and expiration date on the Form I-9.
An individual is considered to be continuing in employment rather than a rehire (and therefore not subject to the reverification requirements) if he reasonably expected to resume employment and: (1) was on a paid or unpaid temporary leave of absence approved by the employer; (2) was promoted or demoted; (3) was temporarily laid off due to lack of work; (4) was on strike or in a labor dispute; (5) was reinstated by a court or settlement after a wrongful termination; (6) was transferred from one distinct unit of the employer to another; (7) continues employment with a related successor, or reorganized employer; or (8) is engaged in seasonal employment.
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From HR Matters E-Tips, a free service of Personnel Policy Service, Inc., 159 St. Matthews Ave., Suite 5, Louisville, KY 40204
Top 10 Tuesday includes our favorite tips and news stories from around the web. This week there are some important articles for you to read and information to be aware of.
Tax News:
- accountingTODAY for the WebCPA – Temporary FUTA Surtax Expires After 35 Years
QuickBooks News & Tips
- QuickBooks and Your Business – How-NOT-to Guide for Using QuickBooks
- Bloomberg – Interview with Brad Smith, Intuit Inc. (video)
- Muir & Associates – 5 Keys to Job Costing in QuickBooks so You Can Increase Your Profitability (video – Windows Media Player format)
- QuickBooks & Beyond – QuickBooks 2011 R7 Released
Construction Industry News:
- Mike Purdy’s Public Contracting Blog – Ohio Legislature Reaches Compromise on Multiple Prime Contracts and Prevailing Wage
Business, Customers, Website Design & Networking:
- American Express OPEN – 6 Common Small Business Money Leaks and How to Plug Them
- BNET – 12 Rules for Business Success
- Google – Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (pdf)
- Darren Slaughter – 5 Quick Tips to Promote Your Website
That’s it for this week, be sure to stop by next week to see what we’ve found!
A reader wrote to ask the following question:
I have a vendor (subcontractor) whose general liability insurance expired. In QuickBooks I was able to produce a check for them. How do I QuickBooks to notify me that their insurance has expired?
Answer:
Unlike some of the more costly construction specific software programs out there, QuickBooks wasn’t designed to prevent us from generating a check to a Vendor/Subcontractor whose General Liability or Worker’s Compensation insurance has expired.
The QuickBooks Premier (or Enterprise) Contractor edition does have a “section” in the Additional Info tab of the Vendor Record where you can enter an expiration date for both Worker’s Comp and General Liability insurance – and if you enter dates in these fields you will get a warning when using a vendor whose insurance has expired – however, it will not prevent you from writing the check, entering the bill, or creating a purchase order.
In other versions of QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise; you can create “Custom Fields” to use in the Vendor record – but they will not produce even a warning.
There are several things that you can do – but none of them will automatically “warn” you before the Subcontractors insurance does expire OR prevent you from writing them a check after it has expired.
One thing that you can do is have your Vendors/Subcontractors request a Certificate of Insurance from their insurance company, listing you as a Certificate Holder. That way you receive a Certificate showing the policy period AND you would also be notified if the coverage was canceled or if it expired.
Even having access to this information directly from the Vendors insurance agent isn’t enough if you don’t have a policy and/or procedure in place for tracking this.
While QuickBooks won’t do anything automatically for you, it will provide you with tools (date tracking, report generation, letter creation, Reminders, and To Do Notes) to implement a good system for tracking this information.
Request our FREE eBook – “QuickBooks Tips & Techniques – Setting Up & Tracking Subcontractors Worker’s Comp Insurance”.
This FREE 13-page eBook will provide you with complete instructions for setting up and maintaining a system for tracking expiration dates of Subcontractors Worker’s Comp AND General Liability Insurance.
