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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services extended temporary immigrant work permits for immigrants starting from May 4, 2022. Here is everything you need to know about the update.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants waiting for authorization to work will have some relief. USCIS stated they would allow continuing to use expired work permits for an additional 18 months.
USCIS’s unstable financial condition has hampered the effective processing of caseloads for several years. In combination with a hiring freeze and the prospect of layoffs that resulted in employee turnover and drastically reduced capability, the COVID-19 pandemic worsened these problems in 2020.
Before USCIS could emerge from these effects on its finances and operations, there was a sudden and significant spike in EAD initial and renewal filings in 2021, as detailed in the TFR.
The extension is part of a bigger government initiative to clear the huge backlog of 1.5 million working visa applications that have hampered USCIS in past years. It is stated in a Provisional Final Rule that it will take effect on May 4, 2022.
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Future Temporary Work Permits Renewal
To enable immigrants to enter while they apply for extensions, work permits, which generally have a validity of two years, are automatically renewed for another 180 days. The renewal period for some work permits will be temporarily extended by an extra 360 days under the Temporary Final Rule.
The current 180-day extension term was deemed “obviously insufficient” by USCIS Director UR Jaddou.
In a declaration, she stated, “This temporary guideline will give those non-citizens who would otherwise be eligible for the automatic renewal a great chance to stay employed and provide essential support for their households while avoiding further interruptions for U.S. employers.”
She also said that the additional time would enable USCIS to reduce the backlog rapidly. Therefore, the extension term will revert to 180 days on October 27, 2023, after which this temporary policy change will be dissolved.
The automatic extension usually lasts up to 540 days (i.e., up to 540 days after the applicant’s facially outdated EAD expiration date), depending on which occurs first: notice of a final verdict on the renewal application.
Foreign citizens with a waiting renewal application still eligible for the 180-day automatic renewal will be given a further extension of up to 360 days, giving them a total of 540 days after the current EAD expires.
In addition, non-citizens will be given automatic extensions of up to 540 days if their EAD expired before the processing of their renewal application, if they have a pending renewal application and a legitimate EAD on May 4, 2022, or if they timely submit an EAD renewal application before October 27, 2023.
A Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, may be submitted to USCIS by certain non-citizens who are lawfully present in the country to request EADs and employment authorization.
About 9.5 million petitions were pending review as of February, up from 5.7 million at the end of 2019.
Recently, USCIS revealed new initiatives to shorten processing times, including providing premium processing for additional forms and establishing new wait time reduction targets.
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