DHS Ends Automatic Work Permit Extensions for Many Renewal Applicants

DHS this week announced an interim final rule (IFR) that will end its policy of automatically extending employment authorization documents (EADs – work permits) for certain renewal applicants. The change marks a substantial shift from the Biden administration’s EAD policy, which allowed many renewal applicants to continue working for up to 540 days after the expiration of the permit while their renewal application was pending with USCIS. 

Some exceptions to this policy still apply. For example, automatic extension provisions tied to certain statutory requirements or Federal Register notices (such as those for Temporary Protected Status‐based EADs) may remain in force. 

Employers and authorized workers must note that, under the new rules, merely filing a timely renewal application is no longer sufficient in some categories to continue working after the card’s expiration date. An authorized worker’s EAD renewal application must first be approved by USCIS to be actually extended or renewed. Employers must terminate the employment of workers whose EADs expire while renewals are pending.

USCIS emphasized that by requiring a full adjudication before extending work authorization or renewing the document, the agency is “placing a renewed emphasis on robust alien screening and vetting … [and] Eliminating policies … that prioritized aliens’ convenience ahead of Americans’ safety and security.”

Immigration Enforcement Implications

This regulation change may allow the Trump administration to more quickly enforce immigration laws, particularly with regard to those who entered the United States illegally but were given work permits via grants of parole or have received some form of prosecutorial discretion, like deferred action. 

Aliens in other categories who become removable may also face more exposure to immigration officers if their EADs expire. While this policy change by itself does not create any new enforcement authorities, it removes a bureaucratic buffer that previously gave tens of thousands of aliens cover while their renewal applications were pending before USCIS. Their records, if their EAD validity period lapses, will show as “unauthorized” in DHS systems (such as SAVE, E-Verify, PCQS, and related systems) earlier and ICE will have fewer administrative obstacles in initiating or executing removals.

Categories – especially parole-based or deferred action EADs – could also now lose their protection from enforcement more quickly if USCIS does not automatically renew their EAD and decides to deny a renewal application, which has always been subject to USCIS discretion. When employment authorization lapses, it can also trigger status reviews or end discretionary parole or deferred action, especially if the status depends on continuing EAD eligibility. That, in turn, may allow DHS to issue Notices to Appear (NTAs) sooner given current U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goals. 

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow explained that the agency is rescinding the Biden administration’s automatic EAD renewal policy to allow the agency to properly verify the applicants’ eligibility and confirm the absence of fraud or other security concerns. “It’s a commonsense measure to ensure appropriate vetting and screening has been completed before an alien’s employment authorization or documentation is extended,” Director Edlow explained in the USCIS’s announcement. Moreover, the rule’s Federal Register notice explained:

The automatic extension of the validity of an EAD grants the benefit of extending an alien’s expired EAD and/or employment authorization merely by filing a timely renewal EAD application and without first completing adjudicative review and related vetting, including resolution of derogatory information identified during the vetting process. That is, it grants the benefit without an eligibility determination; without completing vetting and screening checks; without resolving potential hits of derogatory information; and, when applicable, without a determination that the employment authorization should be granted in the exercise of discretion. Without this IFR, aliens could still obtain an automatic extension despite derogatory information that could flag them as a national security or public safety risk. As described above, vetting and screening might not be completed and derogatory information reviewed and resolved before the alien’s EAD expires. The automatic extension, therefore, poses a security vulnerability that could allow bad actors to continue to work and generate income to potentially finance nefarious activities that pose an imminent threat to the American public. Granting benefits without proper vetting and full adjudication is contrary to the mission of DHS and poses a threat to the safety and security of the American people.

In its press release, USCIS recommended that eligible aliens seeking a timely renewal of their EAD should properly file a renewal application early, up to 180 days before their EAD expires. “The longer an alien waits to file an EAD renewal application, the more likely it is that they may experience a temporary lapse in their employment authorization or documentation.”

What Was in Place Before the IFR

The IFR was issued to repeal the December 2024 regulation, issued under the Biden administration, that increased the automatic extension period for certain employment authorization document renewal applicants for both employment authorization (for aliens who are authorized incident to status) and EADs (for aliens who must apply for work authorization documents) from up to 180 days to up to 540 days from the expiration date stated on expiring Form I-766 if they have a timely filed Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. As a result of that 2024 rulemaking, the 540-day automatic extension became available to: 

• Asylum applicants and grantees;
• Refugees;
• Parents or dependent children of lawful permanent residents (green card holders);
• Aliens who have applied for, and aliens who have been granted, withholding of removal;
• Certain TPS applicants;
• TPS recipients;
• Spouses of E-1/2/3 nonimmigrant visa holders;
• Spouses of L-1 nonimmigrant visa holders; certain aliens who have filed lawful permanent resident (green card) applications;
• Aliens who have filed applications for suspension of deportation, cancellation of removal, or special rule cancellation of removal; aliens who have filed applications for creation of record of lawful admission for permanent residence;
• Aliens who have filed applications to legalize under section 210 or 245A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA);
• Alien spouses of H-1B nonimmigrant visa holders; and
• Aliens who are the principal beneficiaries or derivative children of approved VAWA self-petitioners.

The Biden administration’s stated justification for codifying the automatic extension as a regulation in 2024 was to address USCIS’s inability to keep up with its workload (indefinitely, rather than on an as-needed basis, which the agency had done previously in the form of issuing temporary rules). In addition to financial shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and litigation, the Biden administration’s border policies, historic expansion of TPS, and abuse of parole played a significant role in limiting the agency’s ability to manage its finances and adjudicative capacity in recent years. These policies created “[a]n additional contributing factor… a substantial and sustained increase in initial and renewal EAD applications which significantly increased renewal EAD processing times.” 

The agency stated then that processing times “increased to such a level that the 180-day automatic extension for certain pending renewal EAD applications under 8 CFR 274a.13(d) was insufficient to prevent many renewal applicants from experiencing a lapse in employment authorization and/or documentation while their renewal applications remained pending with USCIS”. At that time, the agency estimated that if the agency did not automatically extend EAD validity periods, “approximately 800,000 renewal applicants would have been in danger of losing their employment authorization and/or documentation in the period beginning May 2024 and ending March 2026”.

Processing times for EADs, however, have improved. For the month of September 2025, USCIS reported an average processing time of 3.7 months for the Form 765, Application for Employment Authorization. 

Opportunity to comment

While DHS’s new policy will go into effect immediately, the agency is accepting comments on the interim final rule through the end of November (or 30 days after official publication in the Federal Register). 

During the comment period, members of the public can submit feedback, including support, opposition, or relevant policy alternatives, through regulations.gov or directly on the federal register’s website. Generally, all comments are publicly available for review, and agencies must review and respond to all relevant comments before it can finalize the regulation. All comments must include the agency name (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) and the docket number (DHS Docket No. USCIS-USCIS-2025-0271) for this rulemaking.

Public comments give individuals, organizations, and experts the opportunity to provide the government with real-world perspectives, data, and feedback that agencies may not otherwise have considered. By highlighting potential impacts, gaps, or improvements, these comments can influence how final policies are written and implemented.