The Trump administration is getting rid of a policy that offered extra time to many immigrants seeking work permit renewals. The sudden shift takes effect Thursday.
Attorneys are concerned the end of this grace period means people will be forced out of their jobs as their renewal applications get stuck in growing administrative backlogs later this winter. Immigrants can’t legally work without a valid work permit, and employers often check for those.
Attorneys say the shift is likely to impact thousands of immigrants of varying statuses who already have a legal way to work and will need to renew their work permits. It does not effect immigrants currently in the middle of an extension.
“We’re going to see people who are authorized to work based on their immigration status, but who will be fired … who won’t be able to provide for their kids, because they could go months and months without having a document [permit], solely because immigration takes too long, through no fault of their own,” said Robin Nice, a local immigration attorney. She said in the 13 years she’s been practicing law, she’s never seen the federal government go without some kind of automatic extension period.
The policy shift will affect a wide-ranging group of immigrants. They include refugees, people who have asylum, spouses of individuals legally working in the United States, as well as people applying for green cards.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported that 1.3 million work permit renewals were filed in fiscal year 2024.
At the end of last year, aware of the backlogs and processing issues, the Biden administration extended the automatic grace period to 540 days, up from six months, for immigrants with pending work permit renewals. This was because of significantly long processing times for those renewals — which haven’t changed in the past year.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services only allows people to renew their work permit six months before it’s set to expire. But the average processing time for many types of work permits is longer than six months. This means that by mid-winter, many immigrants will have lapsed work permits.
Some immigrants in certain industries might not be able to get their employer to hold their position while they’re waiting for the renewed permit, including those in the service or hospitality industries.
“You can’t really say to your employer, ‘I’m out for three weeks while I wait.’ The result is probably gonna be, ‘yeah, we have to let you go,’” said Matthew Maiona, a Boston-based immigration attorney.
The immigrants affected by the policy shift have all already gone through a background check process to get their initial work permit. But the agency processing those renewals said the reasoning for the shift is rooted in finding immigrants with “potential harmful intent” and to deter fraud.
“USCIS is placing a renewed emphasis on robust alien screening and vetting, eliminating policies the former administration implemented that prioritized aliens’ convenience ahead of Americans’ safety and security,” said USCIS Director Joseph Edlow in an emailed statement. The agency didn’t respond to requests for comment about the processing time concerns.
But attorneys say the likely result will be more immigrants working under the table, and at greater risk of human trafficking.
“There’s no justification for it that I can think of,” said Nice. “That’s not to purely dissuade people from staying and to push them out and push them deeper into the shadows and put them at further risk of exploitation.”
