Management Update

Volume 9, Issue 3

March 2020

Form I-9 Federal Register Notice

On Jan. 31, 2020, USCIS published the Form I-9 Federal Register notice announcing a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification , that the Office of Management and Budget approved on Oct. 21, 2019. This new version contains minor changes to the form and its instructions. Employers should begin using this updated form as of Jan. 31, 2020.

The notice provides employers additional time to make necessary updates and adjust their business processes. Employers may continue using the prior version of the form (Rev. 07/17/2017 N) until April 30, 2020. After that date, they can only use the new form with the 10/21/2019 version date. The version date is located in the lower left corner of the form.

USCIS made the following changes to the form and its instructions:

Form:

Revised the Country of Issuance field in Section 1 and the Issuing Authority field (when selecting a foreign passport) in Section 2 to add Eswatini and Macedonia, North per those countries’ recent name changes. (Note: This change is only visible when completing the fillable Form I-9 on a computer.)

Instructions:

Clarified who can act as an authorized representative on behalf of an employer
Updated USCIS website addresses
Provided clarifications on acceptable documents for Form I-9
Updated the process for requesting paper Forms I-9
Updated the DHS Privacy Notice

Outsiders Beware of Louisiana Law on Non-Compete Agreement

Companies and individuals outside of Louisiana seeking to do business here are often surprised by Louisiana’s non-compete law. Most other states use a reasonableness test to determine the validity of non-compete agreements. If a particular non-compete agreement is reasonable in scope and duration, depending upon the industry, most states uphold such an agreement—not so in Louisiana. To the contrary, Louisiana contracts that restrain someone’s right to work are presumed to be invalid. Moreover, Louisiana law prevents efforts to avoid the applicability of Louisiana’s strict law in contractually providing for the applicability of another state’s law in a non-compete agreement involving an employer/employee relationship. In short, Louisiana law on non-compete agreements cannot be avoided for outsiders seeking to do business in Louisiana. Click here to read full article.