Eligible to Work? Why EADs Just Got a Bit More Complicated

By Maureen E. James - Skoler Abbott P.C.

December 17, 2025

Throughout 2025, immigration has been an issue constantly pushed to the forefront of the news. Last week, USCIS announced that it would be pausing the processing of many immigration applications, including for Employment Authorization Documents (EADs), for individuals specifically from nineteen countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen.  The Administration has advocated for this pause to reportedly perform additional screening to identify potential security risks.  This comes shortly after USCIS offered an interim final rule which ended the automatic renewal of EADs for several categories of individuals filing for renewal after October 30, 2025. EADs were automatically renewed as long as a timely application for renewal was filed. This rule stemmed from the fact that renewals often took quite a long time to process.  The change in the rule is extremely problematic considering the length of time renewal usually takes and the potential that the employee may become unauthorized to work while waiting for their renewal.

The reality of immigration policies such as these that have been enacted over the past few months has started to become even more impactful on the day-to-day operations of many employers and their workforces.  With the exception of employment-based visas, such as the H-1B, employers rarely discuss or gain any knowledge of the immigration status of their employees.  The critical document for non-citizens is their EAD, which the employer utilizes to verify employment eligibility and complete the I-9.  Through October 2025, EADs under certain categories may have been eligible for automatic renewal for up to 540 days.  Under current policy, most of those EADs will no longer automatically renew and will expire on the date that is listed on the document itself.

With a dozen and a half countries now paused in their processing, and likely no way for their EADs to automatically renew, employers are finding some employees ineligible to work.  So what is an employer supposed to do?

1. Monitor the status of all employees’ EADs;
2. Encourage employees with EADs that may be close to expiration to be timely about their application for renewals;
3. Determine whether policies related to employment verification needs to be updated considering these changes and ensure that staff understand that EADs close to expiration need to be evaluated closely to determine whether or not they qualify for the very limited exceptions and therefore eligible or automatic extensions;
4. Ensure that reverifications of employment eligibility on the Form I-9 are completed when documentation expires.
5. Determine whether any current or future employees with employment-based visas will be affected by the pause to the processing of their application due to their country of origin;
6. Identify whether expiring EADs or paused employment-based visa applications will impact the organization, staffing, and/or workflow; and,
7. Evaluate what policies and procedures need to be in place to provide leave and/or separate employees who no longer have valid EADs or who no longer have valid employment-based visas.

The individual circumstances of these employees, whether it be related to an EAD or a delayed visa application, are often complicated but more importantly they are very time sensitive.  It is critical that employers be prepared to handle questions and concerns from employees, while recognizing that their ability to assist with non-employment-based visa issues is very limited.  If your company has questions regarding employment eligibility, extensions of EADs, or visas, it is important to consult your immigration and employment counsel for guidance.

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