New year brings new automatic extensions for employment authorization documents

Employers must ensure all employees are authorized to work in the United States. For workers who don’t have U.S. citizenship, an employment authorization document (EAD) is evidence of authorization to work in the United States for a specific period. To maintain a valid EAD in the past, individuals would have to apply for and obtain an extension before it expired to remain eligible to work. Several years ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began issuing rules for temporary automatic extensions to some categories of EADs. These extensions allowed eligible people to continue working under their existing EAD without the fear of becoming ineligible to work because their request for an extension was delayed in paperwork backlogs.

On December 10, 2024, the DHS announced a final rule “permanently increasing the automatic extension period of employment authorization and employment authorization documentation from up to 180 days to up to 540 days for eligible noncitizens who file a timely request to renew their work authorization.” The rule will become effective on January 13, 2025, for individuals who timely filed renewal applications for their EAD on or after May 4, 2022, or whose applications were pending on that date, and before October 1, 2025. Here is what you should know.

Who is eligible?

The criteria for qualification for the automatic extension are: