US Move to Cut Employment Authorisation Period Sparks Concern For Indian Immigrants

New Delhi: Washington has sharply reduced the maximum amount of time for which employment authorisation granted to several categories of foreigners – including refugees, asylees and green card applicants – will be valid, prompting experts to flag a higher potential for employment disruptions among these groups.

Earlier this week, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had reduced the maximum validity period for employment authorisation granted to certain categories of foreigners from five years to one-and-a-half years starting Friday (December 5).

Among those foreigners affected are those admitted as refugees, those granted or awaiting a decision on asylum, and those with pending applications for permanent residence or green card status.

With these foreigners now required to apply for employment authorisation more frequently, the change will allow USCIS to “deter fraud and detect aliens with potentially harmful intent so they can be processed for removal” from America, the agency said, using the US government's term for non-citizens.

“Reducing the maximum validity period for employment authorisation 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 a press release.

He specifically cited the shooting of two National Guard troopers – one of them fatally – in Washington D.C. last month by an Afghan national, saying that the incident makes it “even more clear that USCIS must conduct frequent vetting of aliens”.

Occurring in the first year of Donal Trump's second presidency that has seen a crackdown on immigration, the shooting prompted Washington to pause asylum decisions, visas for Afghan nationals as well as immigration applications for nationals from 19 countries.

Rahul Reddy, a Houston-based immigration lawyer, said speaking to the SHRM human resources association that the reduction in the maximum validity period could lead to “added cost, paperwork and a higher risk of employment interruptions”.

“This decision will impact hundreds of thousands of applicants with pending adjustment-of-status cases, as renewal delays are already common … reducing validity to 18 months could further strain USCIS processing capacity and create gaps in work authorisation for lawful applicants who have long been waiting for permanent residency,” he was quoted as saying.

The Times of India also cited immigration lawyers as saying that the move could affect thousands of Indian nationals who avail such employment authorisation to continue working in the US while their applications for permanent residency are processed.

“The problem is compounded” given that applications to renew employment authorisation can only be made 180 days before they are due to expire even as the time taken to process these requests can be far longer, the newspaper reported.

Indians have tended to be prominent among the various nationals that receive green cards from the US government.

At the same time there has been a visible rise in undocumented immigration from India to America in recent years, and Pew Research has estimated that there were some 7,25,000 unauthorised Indian migrants in the US in 2022, next only to Mexican and Salvadoran citizens.

The maximum validity period for certain categories of foreigners was extended from two years to five years by the Joe Biden administration in September 2023 with the aim of reducing the US government's backlog.

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