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Behind the Curtain: Confessions of a Healthcare Recruiter

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My name is Luke Long, I am a travel therapy recruiter for Cirrus Allied, a national rehab-specific travel division. I have close to 7 years experience in recruiting healthcare professionals, with a majority of that time being my career in travel rehab therapy.
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BIG Changes in Employment Law Effective 8/23/2010 - What You Should Know!

I just returned to my desk from a company-wide meeting with our HR department here at the Cirrus offices, and he shared some info with us that is going to be a BIG change for our market. The Department of Homeland Security has recently changed verification guidelines for I-9 forms, and these changes take place as of 8/23/2010. I wanted to give everyone a quick head's up and discuss what will change from this point forward.


As we all know, the I-9 form is the federal employment eligibility form that everyone must fill out prior to accepting a job in the United States. Traditionally, these forms require a new employee to present two forms of identification to verify citizenship and eligibility to work in the United States. While not much has changed with the required information on the I-9 over the past few years, today a big change took effect that will cause a little bit of a headache for us - the travelers and staffing firms that place them.

What is changing:

According to the new employment laws from the Department of Homeland Security, the identification presented as a part of your I-9 form must be verified in person  by your employer within 3 days of starting your new job.

Did everyone catch that? Let me repeat it in bold:

According to the new employment laws from the Department of Homeland Security, the identification presented as a part of your I-9 form must be verified in person b bybyby your employer within 3 days of starting your new job!


 So needless to say, this is going to cause a few...hiccups. After a few frantic phone calls to find out what exceptions there are for companies such as ours, we found out that there is a work-around that isn't perfect, but is still much better than having everyone come to our offices to show us their ID. A traveler can have their two forms of ID verified by a notary public, who will then stamp the I-9 before the traveler faxes or emails the form back to us.

Basically, it adds another layer of work to the on-boarding process for a new company, but can be quickly taken care of with a little research. I know a lot of people know a notary public, and they're relatively easy to search out, but finding one in a new place or on the way to an assignment can be a bit of a hassle. Be sure to work closely with your travel company on this information to make sure you can start your assignment on time, they'll usually be able to help you find a notary public wherever you are. Another tip for finding a notary for this paperwork is checking with your bank. A lot of national and regional banks offer free notary services for their account holders, so if you are looking for some help with your I-9, there will be several options available to you.

Once you find a notary, you need to have him or her complete the section of your I-9 that requests identification and notarize that section. If your company has that on file within 3 days of your first day of work, you are all set. I know this is a little crazy and quite a big change, but keep in mind that your company is here to help you, so use them as a resource to make sure you're getting all of the information and support you need.
Posted by lukerawks on Aug 23, 2010 4:38 PM CDT

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