U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has revised its Policy Manual to reduce the maximum validity period for Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for certain categories of foreign nationals, including applicants for adjustment of status.  The justification for this action, as with most restrictive actions taken by the USCIS in the past year, is that it will enable a closer “vetting” of applicants for immigration benefits and thus preserve public safety and prevent harm to the United States.

The maximum validity period of initial and renewed EADs will be changed from 5 years back to 18 months for the following categories of applicants:

• Refugees;
• Asylees;
• Persons granted withholding of deportation or removal;
• Persons with pending applications for asylum or withholding of removal;
• Applicants for adjustment of status under Section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (which includes applicants with an employment-based immigrant petition);
• Applicants for suspension of deportation, cancellation of removal, or relief under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act.

The reduction in the EAD validity period applies to persons with EAD applications that are pending or filed on or after December 5, 2025.  The validity periods of EADs that have already been issued will not be affected.

In addition, H.R. 1 – One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21, 139 Stat. 72, (H.R. 1), which was signed into law on July 4, 2025, requires the validity period for initial and renewal employment authorization documents to be one year or the end date of the authorized parole period or duration of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), whichever is shorter.  The following categories are affected by this limitation:

• Paroled refugees;
• Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders;
• Parolees;
• TPS applicants; and
• Spouse of persons grated entrepreneur parole.

The H.R. 1 validity period limitation applies to any Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, pending or filed on or after July 22, 2025.

The reduction in the validity periods of EADs, coupled with the elimination of automatic EAD extensions that we reported on in our Alert of October 29 of this year, mean that EAD applicants will have to file renewal applications more frequently (causing an increased caseload burden to USCIS) and should always file these renewal applications as early as possible.  In most cases, EAD renewal applications may be filed no earlier than 180 days before the expiration date of the current EAD.  USCIS estimates the processing times for a number of EAD applications to be longer than six months, so interruptions in employment authorization for some persons will inevitably occur.