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Comment by redis_mlc | Hacker News Reader

> there's no excuse for not hiring an immigration lawyer

1) You're quite the zero-tolerance guy, aren't you?

Except it's not that simple. Form I-9 page 1 is to be filled out by the worker within one day of starting a new job, and page 2 afterward by the employer within 2-3 days.

So you don't have time to have your immigration lawyer actually look at it, unless you got some pre-filled form, which doesn't normally happen. In fact, you fill in page one and return it to the employer for the next step.

2) Having said that, I appreciate the original blog post bringing this to my attention, and plan to be more careful with this form than the last dozen times I've signed it.

I'm pretty sharp with US employment, tax and passport forms, yet that's the first time that I've heard somebody being banned for an I-9 mistake.

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> I'm pretty sharp with US employment, tax and passport forms, yet that's the first time that I've heard somebody being banned for an I-9 mistake.

Accidental false claims to citizenship are a "whoops, game over" situation which crops up on immigration advice forums from time to time. The USCIS policy manual [1] specifically mentions the I-9 citizenship question as grounds to make an inadmissibility decision, and cites relevant immigration appeals cases.

[1] https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-8-part-k-chapter-...

Interesting. It requires willful intent (this person had none) and proof of timely retraction (this person made numerous good faith attempts), both of these tests should clearly not be met.

something seems off though. IIRC with an I-9 you need to also provide artifacts supporting your ability to work in the US. it's curious that the article doesn't mention what documents he used and if they were appropriate for a different category.

since he didn't have a green card at that point nor US passport obviously, what documents were used to supply that evidence? e.g. "i used X and Y, which US immigration should plainly see does not support a claim of being a US citizen"

Indeed.

1. The form has been faxed in March of 2012 judging by the text on top.

2. According to his linkedin profile he was going to a business school in 2012 and 2013.

3. His article states that he has taken OPT to work for a year after graduation and at the end he got job offer at MuleSoft, which was in 2014.

So what was his work authorization in or before March 2012? It could not be OPT since he just started his degree in 2012 and OPT requires a year of study ( https://www.uscis.gov/opt ). He does not seem to have any work authorization other than OPT in 2014, when he has taken the job in MuleSoft so he has not started his GC application at the time (otherwise he'd had an EAD and would not need to go to Argentina for a year to get an L1 visa in the first place). So, given only the information from Linkedin I cannot see how he could possibly be authorized to work at the time. The fact he has not filled I-9 correctly just corroborates this.

I don't know the current situation, 30 years ago there was a period where my wife was working on her foreign passport + a letter from immigration. (Which was a total joke as the letter had no anti-tamper measures whatsoever, nor was any verification done against their data. I do not recall the state of technology back then to know how high end a setup you would need to forge it--with modern tech I could easily forge it with the stuff within 3' of me as I write this.)

> Except it's not that simple. Form I-9 page 1 is to be filled out by the worker within one day of starting a new job

Looks like its any time up to the first day of work, however the wording is a little confusing. How can you start work without accepting a job offer?

>> Employees must complete and sign Section 1 of Form I-9 no later than the first day of employment, but not before accepting a job offer.

> I'm pretty sharp with US employment, tax and passport forms, yet that's the first time that I've heard somebody being banned for an I-9 mistake.

The form clearly states some severe penalties for not answering honestly. Seems like the author got off lucky!

>> I am aware that federal law provides for imprisonment and/or fines for false statements or use of false documents in connection with the completion of this form.

>> I attest, under penalty of perjury, that I am (check one of the following boxes):

>> Employees must complete and sign Section 1 of Form I-9 no later than the first day of employment, but not before accepting a job offer.

> Looks like its any time up to the first day of work, however the wording is a little confusing. How can you start work without accepting a job offer?

It doesn't sound that confusing to me. You accept the job on date X and agree to start work on date Y; between X and Y+1, you must fill in this part of the form.

It's not uncommon to have a gap between accepting a job and starting it (in tech, at least), that's what I did as I wanted to take some time off between jobs.

> Except it's not that simple.

The case presented so far is actually quite simple. The prospective immigrant is required to state if he is a citizen, permanent resident, or alien authorized to work. That's the employee's job, not the employer. If the employee forgets he is an alien and claims he is a US citizen then that's a problem.

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