USCIS Reaches Settlement Allowing Automatic Renewal of Employment Authorization for Qualifying Dependents
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services settled a lawsuit November 10, allowing spouses of L-2 workers to automatically receive work authorization, and also provides an automatic 180-day extension of work authorization for some spouses of H-1B workers.
“Once implemented by the agency, L-2 spouses will no longer have to apply for work authorization and need an EAD (Employment Authorization Document) as proof in order to work in the United States” said Jesse Bless, director of litigation at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, in an interview with Forbes magazine.
“For H-4 spouses who have lawful status and merely need to renew their employment authorization, they will now enjoy an automatic extension of their authorization for 180 days after expiration should the agency fail to process their timely-filed applications,” said Bless.
Concerns have arisen that the extension of EAD is only valid as long as the H-4 status is valid. The law firm Puyang and Wu noted on Twitter: “In most cases, filing the H-4 extension and H-4 EAD renewal concurrently does not grant you the automatic extension. The H-4 extension would have to be approved first before you may benefit from the full 180-day auto extension.”
The lawsuit, Shergill vs. Mayorkas — Alejandro Mayorkas heads up the Department of Homeland Security — was initiated by the law firm Wasden Banias, which represented 15 plaintiffs in the class action case, filed with the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The lawsuit arose in response to lengthy delays by USCIS in processing H-4 Employment Authorization Document applications.
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