This key note is an introduction and Part I of a new series on “Recordkeeping Requirements for Business Immigration Documents.” As a legal firm specializing in, among other legal areas, Employment and Labor Law, we have been creating a diverse but focused range of content to educate, train, keep you informed, and ensure that you, our unusually motivated® readers, stay ahead of the game in matters related to the labor law. Again, this is the primary reason we have dedicated a good percentage of our blogs to looking at every nook and cranny of Employment and Labor Law.
Through this series, we aim to address a number of retention and compliance issues that face employers when it comes to meeting document retention requirements for three key immigration documents including, the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) labor certification process, the Labor Condition Application (LCA) process, and Form I-9 Eligibility Process.
Form I-9 Eligibility Process
Before we dive right into these requirements, we would like to familiarize ourselves with these documents, particularly Form I-9. For starters, officially known as the Employment Eligibility Verification, Form I-9 is a form maintained by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This form is used when verifying the legal authorization to work and identify all paid employees in the country as mandated by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
Therefore, employers are required to use this form to document that every new employee (whether citizen or noncitizen) hired following the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 is identified and has the legal authorization to work in the country. Accordingly, all employees (whether U.S. citizens or noncitizens) are required, with the help of their employers, to complete this form. Therefore, it goes without saying that it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that Form I-9, especially Section 1, has been completed appropriately and timely.
In this regard, stay on the lookout for Part II of this new series and our blog post titled “Document Retention Requirements for Form I-9,” in which we shall kick-start this discussion by hammering on the requirements for document retention for Form I-9.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!
Always rising above the bar,
Isaac T.,
Legal Writer, Author, & Publisher.