The government has changed its policy on the validity period for employment authorization documents (EADs). Effective immediately, EADs will now be valid for two years for applicants with pending adjustment of status (green card) applications. The EAD cards were previously limited to one-year terms. However, many green card applications are taking more than one year to process. So, applicants had to continue to renew their EADs while they waited. This added an additional burden on both the government and applicants.
This new policy change is great news for applicants with pending green card applications in the U.S. This change allows them to continue to work lawfully without worrying about a break in their employment authorization. It will also allow folks to save resources, because they will not have to submit as many renewal requests. We also hope that this will allow the government to shift its resources to adjudicating other applications more quickly. We will continue to monitor these trends and let our clients know of any other changes.