The US authorities have announced the increase of the automatic extension period of certain EADs, to reach a total of 540 days of validity after expiration.

The EAD is the Employment Authorization Document which allows, for example, the holder of an L2 visa (spouse of an employee in intra-group mobility) to exercise a professional activity in the USA. Due to the Covid crisis in particular, EAD renewals are currently experiencing significant delays. To deal with this situation and allow the continuity of professional activity for American employers, an automatic extension of 180 days had been put in place. This being unsufficient, a new period of 360 days is added to it, for a total of 540 days.

This extension only applies if the EAD renewal application was properly submitted on time before expiry.

This measure will be in effect for the next 18 months, until the end of October 2023. At this point, the extension will drop back to 180 days, until USCIS is able to process requests within 3 months, which is targeted for the end of 2023.

Find the detailed analysis of our partner here.

This alert was prepared based on the information shared by our partner Bruna Frota and her team from INLG, and published with their permission.