Why this differential treatment with the spouse of visa holders? While USCIS will begin premium processing for various categories in October 2022, the announcement came with a start date in 2025 for H, L and E visa categories. In March 2022, USCIS announced it wishes to implement premium processing to reduce some of the backlog. They did everything by the book, filed their papers six months ahead of time, and continued to look at processing times which increased from 90 days in pre-Covid era to 1.7 years in current times. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Sarah L. Kimberly Hernandez, 21, of Arlington, Va., stands in the center of Mount Pleasant Street as the march heads toward the White House on Thursday. These are doctors, nurse practitioners, engineers, teachers, media professionals, et al, who could have continued serving our communities but could not for no fault of theirs. and continue to work.”įor last several years USCIS processing delays have caused the spouses of H, L and E visa holders to quit their jobs and wait over a year in most cases for their employment authorization document renewals caused by USCIS processing delays. Now, an AOS applicant, or an eligible H-4 spouse, or L-2 spouse among other eligible EAD applicants, can be assured that there will be minimal concern of an employment-gap in their work authorization as they await their renewed EAD cards to arrive, Kim explains.īut he does remind those in line that, “Once again, the expansion of the auto-extension rule does not make more people eligible for this benefit, but for those who do fall in the bucket of eligible EAD applicants, it helps stabilize their ability to remain in the U.S. As Partner and Attorney Min Kim of Chugh LLP explains, “The temporary rule should primarily help foreign nationals with an EAD incidental to a filed and pending AOS application as EAD adjudications have routinely taken much longer than 180 days given the unprecedented backlogs at the Service Centers in recent months.” This new rule brings hope to some of the thousands of Indians working in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service early May, certain categories of work visas will automatically extend validity of their work authorization from 180 days to 540 days starting May 4, 2022.Īs per USCIS’s guidelines, “This rule temporarily amends existing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations to provide that the automatic extension period applicable to expiring Employment Authorization Documents (Forms I-766 or EADs) for certain renewal applicants who have filed Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, will be increased from up to 180 days to up to 540 days from the expiration date stated on their EADs.” Under the new temporary rule announced by the U.S. H-4 EAD (Employment Authorization Document).

H4 ead processing time