The Biden Administration announced this Thursday an extension of work permits for certain categories of immigrants. The decision could prevent hundreds of thousands of people from suddenly losing their jobs.
The announcement was made by the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a publication in the Federal Register in which it explains the automatic extension of the validity of Employment Authorization Documents (EAD)
from 180 to 540 days.
According to the official provision, eligible immigrants whose work permits have
expired since October 27 will continue to be eligible to work for at least another 360 days
while their EAD renewals are processed.
Immigrants arrive at a USCIS facility in Miami, Florida. Associated Press
“Over the past year, the USCIS workforce reduced processing times for most EAD categories, in support of an overall goal of improving access to work for individuals who are eligible […] However, it also “We received a record number of employment authorization applications, which impacted our renewal mechanisms,” said Ur Jaddou, director of USCIS, quoted by The Hill.
Jaddou explained that “temporarily extending the existing automatic extension up to 540 days
will prevent lapses in employment authorizations
” and “at the same time, this rule provides DHS [Department of Homeland Security] an additional window to consider long-term solutions by applying of public comments, and the identification of new strategies to ensure that those non-citizens eligible for employment authorization can maintain that benefit.”
Asylum seekers and foreigners who are in the process of changing their status to permanent residence will be the groups that will benefit the most from the measure.
[I have been waiting for
a
work permit for a year after cancellation of deportation. Is this normal?]
Up to 800,000 immigrants were at risk of losing their work permits
before the decision to extend the permits was announced, a USCIS spokesperson said, cited by The Hill.
The move will help the agency process more cases after the Trump Administration slowed USCIS' efforts to process applications.
This is the second time that the Biden Government has announced a 540-day extension. The first time was in 2022.
The USCIS document specified that all categories of immigrants covered by the 2022 extension
will also be covered by the new one
.
“We are working very hard as an agency and have made considerable progress in speeding up our processing and keeping pace with what has been a huge increase in the number of applications for all sorts of things, but in particular, employment authorization documents.” , a USCIS spokesperson told The Hill.
Since the 2022 extension expired, Administration officials have been inundated with letters from congressmen, mayors, immigrant advocacy groups, and business owners asking that the 540-day extension be reinstated.
The new rule will go into effect this April 8
, weeks before the 180 days for work permits that expired after the October expiration.
The USCIS document specified that active 180-day extensions will be retroactively converted to 540-day extensions.