September 22, 2023
Impact [Medium]
Summary
Beginning October 1, 2023, US Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS) will increase the validity period of initial and renewal Employment Authorization Documents to five (5) years for noncitizens, including applicants with pending Adjustment of Status (Green Card) applications.
The detail
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s immigration reform efforts, US Citizenship USCIS will increase the maximum validity period of initial and renewal Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) to five (5) years for certain noncitizens beginning October 1, 2023. This includes applicants for Adjustment of Status (AOS), Asylum, or Cancellation of Removal, and those admitted as refugees, asylees, and recipients of withholding of removal. The increased validity period is intended to reduce the frequency with which noncitizens must file to renew their work authorization. Additionally, the 5-year validity period is anticipated to reduce the associated workload and processing times for USCIS officers, which will allow the agency to concentrate its efforts on initial work authorization caseload.
What this means
The extended 5-year validity for AOS-based EADs will provide both employees and employers stability as it mitigates the need for frequent work authorization renewals while an employee’s AOS application is pending.
AOS applicants frequently filed with both an EAD and Advance Parole (AP) document, which authorizes international travel while an AOS application is pending. The new increase in validity period for EADs does not, however, apply to AP documents. Thus, the AP validity period for initial and renewal documents will remain at one (1) year.
We will be closely monitoring the processing times for all EAD applications as USCIS has indicated that one of the reasons for this extension of validity is to help process EAD initial and renewal applications.
Contact us
Please reach out to Manish Daftari (manish.daftari@vialto.com) to discuss further.