The current administration’s latest anti-immigration initiative is the October 30, 2025 rule eliminating the automatic extension provision that allowed individuals with pending employment authorization document (EAD) renewal applications to continue working for up to 540 days beyond the current expiration. The rule was meant to address USCIS processing times, which were unreasonably long before the Covid-19 pandemic and then got even longer. Delays of a year or more were routine. The Biden Administration made great strides in reducing processing times and implemented the automatic extension rule in 2022 to ensure that people could keep working if they timely submitted their EAD renewal applications.
The most common categories for EADs are refugees, asylees, persons with pending asylum applications, persons with pending adjustment (green card) applications, and H-4 spouses. The validity period typically is two to five years. USCIS will accept a renewal application up to 180 days before the current EAD expires. This six-month filing window often meant that, despite one’s efforts to submit an application on time, USCIS’ delay in approving the new EAD forced them to take time off work until the new EAD arrived.
The October 30, 2025 rule explains that the administration is eliminating automatic extensions for EADs for security reasons as yet another measure to guard against the so-called “invasion” that was described in executive orders earlier this year. Never mind that the U.S. has a criminal justice system, or used to have before it was politicized, this rule suggests that the EAD application process requires extreme vetting to ferret out fraudsters and terrorists.
If USCIS would commit to adjudicating EAD applications within 180 days, or a shorter period as previously was required by a since-withdrawn regulation, this entire on-again, off-again scheme of automatic extensions would not be necessary. Sadly, the administration would rather take swipes at vulnerable populations than work toward something positive.