Help on I-9 documentation!

Kymm

I sent out an offer letter to someone and in it I have my standard "verbage" - that he must establish his identity @ authorization to work as required by IRCA... (Immigration Reform)...he has called me to ask if there is going to be any problem with just having a social sec. card and drivers license? Normally I would say "no"..however, he is from the Philippines and I'm wondering why he is worried about this... I asked him if he can legally work here - he just reiterated that he does have a social sec. card but is not a citizen and does not have a green card or anything else he can show me... He says he got the soc. sec. card when he worked in Guam and it is in his name and he pays taxes... ??
Help??!! He is very qualified and from his application, has worked here for the past 5 years, but I'm not sure where to go with this...
have never had to deal with this and not sure what to do. Will welcome your input!

pork1

KYMM: You can not go anywhere with this until the position has been filled by your company with this particular individual, as the person to be enrolled. You should go into your enrollment procedures and get to the stage where the I-9 is required to be executed. Unless you are a member of The Basic Pilot Program, you must accept the apparant documents and his ability to declare his self to be a U.S. Citizen as being factual and your proof that the I-9 was completed with apparantly good documents. Now, if he can not complete the form with a check for U.S. Citizenship. Then you must stop the enrollment process and send him to get whatever documents that might be used. You may give him up to 3 days to get the documentation necessary to complete the I-9 form. He may not comeback, because he just may not be able to acquire the necessary documentation. You are not allowed to discriminate against anyone, but you sure can require the complete execution of the I-9 with documentation.

I wish that you had followed my lead and joined the Basic Pilot Program; you would have been able to do a little more. You can still call over the 800 number and validate the Name spelling, the SSN, the Gender and his birthday. It has been almost a year since I left the SSA test program and went nationwide with the S.A.V.E. program for verification of I-9 information. Surely someone out there in the CA Hr world still has the 800 number.

Hope this helps, you are where I was in this arena about 2 years ago.

PORK

HRCalico

Kymm, I understand your apprehension. I would encourage you to treat this hire exactly like any other. If he accepts your offer, have him complete the I-9 like you have every other new employee do. You may wish to check out the Handbook for Employers that goes with the I-9 (available at [url]http://uscis.gov/graphics/lawsregs/handbook/hand_emp.pdf[/url]).

Every time I glance through it, I learn something new. I really need to sit down and read it through again! (In fact, this time, I figured out my question from the HR documents section about laminated social security cards being acceptable. They are not accpetable if it says something like "void if laminated" on the back. But I digress.)

When he completes the I-9, he will have to check one of the boxes. If necessary, he'll have to provide an alien number or other supporting info. Page 13 of the handbook (but p. 15 of the pdf document) question 10 says that there is no requirement that employees present any supporting documentation for section 1 (i.e. something with their alien number). You may not ask to see that documentation, either, for section 2 (just like you can't require which documents they provide you with).

It could be that this fellow just isn't terribly familiar with our laws and employment practices. Perhaps he's tried to find a job somewhere that the HR-type people incorrectly demanded certain documents. Who knows. Just follow the standard practices like you do for anybody else and you'll be fine!

TN HR

Do as others have mentioned. Treat this just as any other hire. You can be a Filipino national, not be a US citizen and not have a green card, yet still be here legally. It can happen. Saw it in the Army all the time.