USCIS Makes 180-Day Cap on Automatic Work Permit Extensions Permanent, Affecting Kenyan EAD Holders

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has made permanent the restrictions on automatic extensions of Employment Authorization Documents, locking in a maximum 180-day automatic extension for immigrants who file timely renewals of their work permits. The agency, headquartered in Camp Springs, Maryland, has closed the door on any return to the 540-day automatic extension that the Department of Homeland Security provided for renewal applications filed between May 4, 2022 and September 30, 2025.

The decision lands hardest on foreign nationals in the United States whose ability to work depends entirely on an EAD rather than on a visa that carries work authorization of its own. That includes applicants with pending Form I-485 green card applications, H-4 dependent spouses whose eligibility flows from an H-1B principal, and asylum seekers waiting on decisions in a system with backlogs measured in years, statuses held by tens of thousands of Kenyan-born residents counted in U.S. Census Bureau surveys, many of them working in healthcare, technology and finance.

Under the regulations at 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(1)(vii), a renewal applicant keeps working lawfully after the EAD expires only if the Form I-765 renewal was filed before the current card lapsed and eligibility continues in the same category under 8 CFR 274a.12. The automatic extension runs from the expiration date printed on the expiring card. With the cap now fixed at up to 180 days, an applicant whose renewal is still unadjudicated on day 181 loses work authorization, even where the delay rests entirely with the government.

The 180-day ceiling was the long-standing rule until a temporary final rule effective May 4, 2022 raised automatic extensions to as long as 540 days to protect applicants trapped in pandemic-era backlogs. The relief was extended repeatedly, and a proposed rule published in May 2023 contemplated making 540 days permanent, but that proposal was never finalized. Renewal applications filed on or after October 1, 2025 reverted to the 180-day standard, and USCIS has now made the tighter cap permanent, removing the cycle of uncertainty that accompanied each successive temporary extension.

The practical problem is arithmetic. Processing times published by USCIS for Form I-765 at several of its service centers have in recent years stretched past five months, and the agency's affirmative asylum backlog has swelled past one million cases. A 540-day cushion routinely covered the wait; 180 days no longer reliably does.

When an EAD and any automatic extension run out, employers must complete reverification on Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, and may not lawfully keep the worker on payroll until the new card arrives. Continuing to employ someone known to lack authorization exposes employers to civil penalties under Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Workers caught in the gap commonly face unpaid leave, interrupted employer-sponsored health coverage and, in states that tie driver's license validity to immigration documents, expired licenses.

Each affected category carries its own timing trap. Adjustment applicants in the (c)(9) category hold EADs tied to Form I-485 applications that can remain pending for years behind visa bulletin backlogs. Asylum applicants in the (c)(8) category must first satisfy the 180-day waiting period in Section 208(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act before obtaining an initial work permit, then face the same renewal squeeze. H-4 spouses in the (c)(26) category, eligible under a 2015 rule codified at 8 CFR 274a.12(c)(26) where the H-1B principal has an approved Form I-140 immigrant petition or extended status under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act, depend on the principal's status remaining valid, meaning a delay in the principal's own renewal can strand the spouse's EAD application as well.

USCIS sits within the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem, and the permanent cap consolidates the tighter posture toward employment authorization that has marked President Donald Trump's second term.

The stakes reach Kenyan households back home. Central Bank of Kenya data show diaspora remittances hit a record 4.94 billion dollars in 2024, with North America the largest source, money sent overwhelmingly by wage earners whose monthly transfers depend on uninterrupted authorization to work.

For EAD holders, the arithmetic allows little slack. The operating guidance is to file the renewal at the earliest date the Form I-765 instructions permit for the applicant's category and to retain the Form I-797C receipt notice, which together with the expired EAD documents the 180-day automatic extension for I-9 purposes. Applicants who cross the 180-day line with a renewal still pending must stop working until the new card is in hand, because the permanent rule provides no grace period beyond it.