The Department of Homeland Security made a staggering, if not at all unsurprising, announcement on Friday, May 6, 2023: The temporary flexibility that allowed companies to remotely complete New Hire’s I-9 Employment Eligibility Form will expire on July 31, 2023. Moreover, any employee who was remotely onboarded will need to complete an in-person Verification by August 30, 2023.
This magnitude of this news cannot be understated.
It means that companies will have to make a massive push to rapidly complete physical, in-person I-9 Verifications for each and every employee they hired and remotely verified between March 2020 and today. It also means they must recalibrate their onboarding apparatus to once again account for in-person employment eligibility verification.
How Employment Eligibility Verification Got Here
Recall that in the earliest days of the pandemic and its attendant lockdowns, DHS paused the in-person requirement for Employment Eligibility Verification, allowing companies to complete form I-9 with their New Hire remotely, over video conference software like Zoom.
This allowed companies to onboard employees during the pandemic’s social distancing without coming into physical contact. Obviously, this proved especially valuable for employers expanding their remote employee roster as well as moving to hybrid models. It is obviously much easier to complete Form I-9 with an employee over Zoom than it is to fly them out to company headquarters to do it in person.
But, of course, remote verification is nowhere near as secure. For a process designed to ensure employment eligibility, there are significant gaps in this verification system, which we have previously described.
Thus, the temporary flexibility was never going to stay permanent, despite much agitation among employers who grew accustomed to the relative ease of remote onboarding.
And so, here we are. Companies are rightly scrambling to ensure they do not fall out of compliance, looking for rapid and reliable solutions to onboard their employees, both retroactively and moving forward.
TrendSource Remote I-9 Verifications Are AN Efficient Solution
Thankfully, TrendSource long ago developed and perfected a system for just such a situation. TrendSource’s Remote I-9 Verifications enable employers to rapidly and efficiently onboard their employees, wherever they reside.
When TrendSource receives a Remote I-9 Verification order, it immediately pairs the New Hire with a Field Agent from TrendSource’s national database. The Field Agent schedules to meet with the New Hire, and together they complete Section 2 of Form I-9 in person.
Once the Field Agent uploads the complete I-9, it quickly passes through TrendSource’s stringent Quality Assurance department and arrives on the client’s dashboard.
This proven system is the most efficient means for employers to onboard their New Hires, whether they are remote or work in-office.
Remote I-9 Verifications unburden overwhelmed HR departments buy allowing them to outsource some of their most rote onboarding functions, while also helping companies bridge distances to hire the most qualified employees wherever they reside. And, perhaps most importantly, Remote I-9 Verifications can help a company quickly play catch up as we rapidly approach the August 31 deadline.
For businesses, remaining in compliance with employment eligibility requirements is not optional, it is paramount. TrendSource Remote I-9 Verifications help companies meet this requirement without cripplingly their operations in the process.
Learn more about Remote I-9 Verifications.
