The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has granted an extension to April 30, 2022, of the COVID-19 related flexibilities related to Form I-9 compliance. Those flexibilities were due to expire on Dec. 31.
The guidance, issued at the beginning of the pandemic, permits remote inspection of employee identity and employment authorization documents and requires employers to conduct in-person verification within three business days once normal operations resume.
The extension of the I-9 Flexibility Guidance was
announced by ICE on Dec. 15. Two days earlier, ACE joined CUPA-HR and nine other higher education associations in sending a
letter to Ur Mendoza Jaddou, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, requesting such an extension, though asking for it through June 30, 2022.
While most institutions are committed to maintaining current operations into the spring semester, “ongoing precautions related to COVID-19 are still in effect and the discovery of the potentially more transmissible Omicron variant require campuses to remain flexible so that students, faculty, and staff are not negatively impacted during the spring semester should a return to remote instruction be required to keep campuses safe,” the higher education associations noted in their letter.