April 6 :
On Thursday, the Biden administration extended work permits for several immigrant groups, including Indian nationals, days before a rule enacted during the COVID-19 era expired on April 24. This might save the jobs of hundreds of thousands of individuals who would otherwise lose them all at once.
A temporary final rule was published in the Federal Register on April 4 by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This regulation automatically extends the validity of Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) from 180 to 540 days.
This temporary measure is put in place to ensure that US employers can continue to operate smoothly and to protect noncitizens who already have work authorization from having their documentation and authorization to work revoked while they wait for USCIS to decide on their renewal applications.
"The Biden-Harris Administration is taking yet another step towards allowing lawful permanent residents to join the labour force and bolster local economies," the statement read.
As part of a larger effort to increase employment opportunities for qualified individuals, the USCIS workforce has, during the past year, shortened processing times for the majority of EAD categories. "On the other hand, our renewal mechanisms were affected by the record number of employment authorization applications," stated Ur M. Jaddou, director of USCIS.
The current automatic extension can be temporarily extended up to 540 days in order to prevent employment authorizations from expiring. Also, by allowing the public to voice their opinions and propose new approaches, this rule gives DHS more time to think about how to keep employment authorization for noncitizens in place.
To those who are qualified, this interim measure will be enforced for EAD renewal applications that were properly and timely submitted on or after October 27, 2023, and which are still pending as of the date of publication in the Federal Register.
For eligible EAD renewal applicants, the temporary final rule will be in effect for 540 days beginning on the date of the rule's publication in the Federal Register, provided that the Form I-765 application is submitted in a timely and accurate manner.
According to USCIS, approximately 800,000 individuals could face a loss of employment authorization if this measure were not implemented. This number includes asylum seekers, green card applicants, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applicants or recipients, and asylees or asylum applicants.
The likes of sixty thousand to eighty thousand businesses would have likewise felt the pinch from that oversight. In most cases, an EAD will remain valid for the entire authorised parole duration. This TFR will not lengthen the parole period.
When the April 24 deadline loomed, some employees were supposed to begin losing their permission, advocates, mayors, and business leaders began to feel increasingly apprehensive.
The Biden administration has now extended the deadline to 540 days twice. Automatic extensions restored to 180 days on October 27, 2023, after the first extension, which was announced in 2022, had its sunset.
The new extension will also extend to all immigrant categories that were covered by the previous one, which was in 2022. Now that 540-day extensions are in place, the issue is also less likely to happen again. Instead of the previous standard of two years, USCIS has begun issuing five-year EADs to eligible immigrants as of September. In the event that EADs expire in bulk in the future, USCIS will have more time to prepare.
Numerous letters were sent to administration officials by members of Congress, mayors, advocacy groups, and members of the business community requesting the reinstatement of the 540-day extensions since the 2022 extension ended.
According to a USCIS spokesperson who spoke with The Hill, some EADs had already expired when the 2022 extension was announced, leading to the loss of employment for immigrants and problems for businesses.
Just a few weeks before the 180-day threshold for EADs that expired following the October sunset, the new rule will be implemented on April 8. The 180-day active extensions will be converted to 540-day extensions retroactively. People seeking asylum and the US Chamber of Commerce alike have been waiting impatiently for the lengthier extensions.
