Employer fined for reverifying expired green cards

Most employers know that they don’t have to reverify a permanent resident employee’s green card when it expires, but is there any harm in doing so? The answer is yes, especially if you’re not reverifying the documentation of U.S. citizens. One employer will be paying a $10,200 fine for doing just that. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Hoover, Inc. required all permanent residents who presented a green card (a permanent resident card) for I-9 purposes to present a new green card when the old one expired. They did not require new, unexpired documents of U.S. citizens whose I-9 documents expired. This, said the DOJ, was illegal discrimination under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Tips: Remember that you may no longer accept any expired documents for I-9 purposes. Some documents, such as birth certificates and Social Security cards, do not have expiration dates and should always be treated as unexpired. An employee’s permanent resident card, or “green card” must be unexpired at the time of hire but, unlike other List A and List C employment authorization documents, need not be reverified upon its expiration. List B documents, those that establish the employee’s identity, need not be re-verified upon their expiration date.