Dear Colleagues,
I am writing today to provide important awareness to the campus community regarding the announcement from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as it relates to (1) the ending of remote verification (e.g. via Zoom) in place of the physical examination of an employee’s identity/work authorization documentation (Federal Form I-9), and (2) the requirement to physically examine work authorization documents by August 30, 2023 for those individuals hired on/after March 20, 2020, and whose documents were examined remotely.
Who will this apply to?
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Only individuals hired ON or AFTER March 20, 2020, AND
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Had their work authorization documentation verified with a video appointment.
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The impacted individuals will be receiving an email notification very soon with instructions for the actions they need to take.
Who is excluded?
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Individuals hired BEFORE March 20, 2020.
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Individuals hired on or AFTER March 20, 2020 AND
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Appeared in person to a campus employee to have their work authorization documentation physically inspected, OR had them inspected by an Authorized Representative.
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Anyone who has an expiring appointment as of August 30, 2023 or is otherwise separated from the University.
What do you need to do if this change applies to you?
If your work authorization documents were examined remotely after March 20, 2020, one of two actions will be required to bring your work authorization into compliance:
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The fastest and easiest option is for you to designate an Authorized Representative who will attest that they have physically inspected the work authorization documents (i.e., ID), OR
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You will need to come to campus by appointment for an in-person review by an HR representative.
Additional instructions about those two actions will be included in the email to the employee.
Failure to comply by the deadline comes with significant impacts. For the University, non-compliance comes with hefty fines per employee and potential risk to federal funding. For the impacted employee, non-compliance jeopardizes their systems access and ultimately, their continued employment after August 30, 2023.
What you need to know
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A Berkeley Regional Services (BRS) team is working diligently on processes and identifying this employee population so that an email outreach can begin as soon as possible.
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Please be aware should you (or one of your staff) receive an outreach email from ucberkeleyi9verification@berkeley.edu it is not a phishing scam - it will be a legitimate email that will outline the urgent actions needed.
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All re-verifications are required to be completed no later than August 11, 2023.
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The exception expiration also means there may be changes to the way BRS Onboarding Teams perform I-9 verifications going forward. If there are any changes, BRS regions will communicate directly with their departments.
We all realize this will be a significant undertaking, occurring concurrently with Fall semester hiring and onboarding work, among other activities. I ask for everyone’s cooperation to ensure we complete the re-verifications no later than August 11, 2023 in order to comply with the Federal mandate.
If there are questions, you can send a message to: ucberkeleyi9verification@berkeley.edu.
Thanks,
Eugene
Eugene Whitlock
Chief People & Culture Officer
This message is being sent to all UC Berkeley staff and student employees. This messaging to academics will come from the EVCP Office.