U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is reducing the maximum validity of many work permits from five years to just eighteen months, marking a significant policy change from the previous presidential administration.
USCIS announced that it is reinstating the shorter 18-month limit for a wide range of noncitizens, a window that had been expanded to 5 years under the Biden administration. The agency announcement indicated that the shorter cycle will force more frequent background checks and help officers detect identity fraud, security threats, or “harmful anti-American ideologies,” according to a December 4 notice on the USCIS website.
“Reducing the maximum validity period for employment authorization will ensure that those seeking to work in the United States do not threaten public safety or promote harmful anti-American ideologies,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in the press release. “After the attack on National Guard service members in our nation’s capital by an alien who was admitted into this country by the previous administration, it’s even more clear that USCIS must conduct frequent vetting of aliens.”
The change covers refugees, people granted asylum, and those given withholding of removal. It also affects applicants with pending asylum cases or applications to adjust their immigration status, as well as people seeking cancellation of removal, suspension of deportation, or relief under long-standing humanitarian programs, according to the USCIS update.
The new validity limit applies to any employment authorization document pending or filed on or after December 5, 2025. USCIS’s press release said the move is intended to ensure regular review of applicants whose immigration matters remain unresolved.
The announcement came one week after two National Guard members were shot, one fatally, in Washington by an Afghan man who entered the United States through a resettlement pathway following the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. Numerous statements from figures in the administration have referenced the shooting repeatedly as a justification for stepped-up screening and sharp restrictions on immigration avenues for nationals of certain countries.
The Trump administration also halted immigration applications this week for citizens from nineteen nations already facing travel restrictions, with green card and citizenship processing reportedly paused for people from countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Venezuela, Sudan, and Somalia, according to Inquirer.Net.
A separate set of limits created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by Trump on July 4, 2025, will impose an even stricter one-year cap for certain parole and Temporary Protected Status categories. USCIS’s release said those provisions will begin applying to any work authorization request filed on or after July 22, 2025.
In another move signaling a tighter approach, the Department of Homeland Security has issued an interim final rule ending automatic 540-day renewals for work-permit holders, a policy originally created during the Biden administration to prevent disruptions amid processing delays.
In the preamble of the rule said that automatic extensions allow the government to grant renewed work authorization “without an eligibility determination; without completing vetting and screening checks; without resolving potential hits of derogatory information; and, when applicable, without a determination that the employment authorization should be granted in the exercise of discretion.”
The Center for Immigration Studies submitted a public comment supporting the end of automatic renewals and recommending further limits on which noncitizens are eligible for work authorization. The comment argued that backlogs are partly a result of “over-expansion of work-authorization categories and filings,” which it said strains agency resources.
Immigrant advocates, legal service groups, and employers have warned in other public forums that shorter employment authorization document (EAD) validity periods may increase paperwork burdens, lead to more expirations while cases are pending, and disrupt employment for legally present migrants. USCIS did not directly address those concerns in the material published Thursday, but said the changes were necessary to “fulfill its mission” and conduct more frequent vetting.
