Sindell Law Offices E-Min Newsletter (Vol. 6) - English Article #24

   The employment authorization document, which has been limited to a one year limit, will be extended in certain cases. An employment authorization document is a card which grants employment authorization to those persons applying for a green card and in the last step of the adjudication process, Adjustment of Status. During this last step, applicants can obtain work authorization. However, these work authorizations were good for one year and normally people have to obtain 2 or 3 extensions prior to adjudication of the AOS.

Through this rule, BCIS will now establish EAD validity periods based on certain criteria, including: The applicant's immigration status; general processing time for the underlying application or petition; required background checks and response times for background checks by other agencies, as necessary; other security considerations and factors as deemed appropriate by BCIS. BCIS will have discretion to modify EAD validity periods both for initial, renewal, and replacement cards. BCIS also will be able to establish EAD validity periods for classes of aliens and for individuals within those classes whose cases warrant a lesser validity period. The rule also removes current regulatory language limiting EAD validity periods to one-year increments for certain classes of aliens who are required to apply for employment authorization. Finally, the rule amends BCIS regulations to reflect that BCIS will issue EADs to aliens granted asylum by the Department of Justice, Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), with validity periods of up to five years, unless otherwise appropriate.


DATES: Effective date: This rule is effective July 30, 2004.


Who Is Affected by This Rule?

This interim rule affects aliens who are required to apply for employment authorization or, if employment authorized incident to immigration status, to apply for evidence of employment authorization. This interim rule also affects aliens who have been granted asylum by EOIR and wish to obtain evidence of employment authorization.

These regulatory and policy limitations often require an alien whose underlying status is longer than one year, or whose underlying application will remain pending with BCIS for longer than one year, to apply for renewal of the EAD every year, creating a burden on the applicant and an additional workload for BCIS.

This rule gives BCIS the discretion and flexibility to modify EAD validity periods for initial, renewal, and replacement cards. BCIS also will establish EAD validity periods for classes of aliens and will preserve the discretion to establish validity periods of varying lengths for individuals within those classes whose cases warrant a lesser validity period. For aliens who are employment authorized incident to status, BCIS does not contemplate issuing employment authorization documents that would expire only upon expiration of the alien's status.