USCIS strengthens screening of alien workers

In a press release, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated (USCIS) its Policy Manual to reduce the maximum validity period for Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) for certain categories of aliens. This update also incorporates changes to EAD validity periods made by recent legislation to ensure proper vetting and screening of aliens. The reduced maximum validity periods for certain categories will result in more frequent vetting of aliens who apply for authorization to work in the United States. Vetting an alien more often will enable USCIS to deter fraud and detect aliens with potentially harmful intent so they can be processed for removal.

The maximum validity period for initial and renewal EADs will be changed from five years back to 18 months for several categories of aliens:

•Aliens admitted as refugees;

•Aliens granted asylum;

•Aliens granted withholding of deportation or removal;

•Aliens with pending applications for asylum or withholding of removal;

•Aliens with pending applications for adjustment of status under INA 245; and

•Aliens with pending applications for suspension of deportation, cancellation of removal, or relief under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act.

This change affects aliens with applications for employment authorization that are pending or filed on or after Dec. 5, 2025, and based on any of the above categories.

As required by H.R. 1 - One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21, 139 Stat. 72, (H.R. 1), signed into law on July 4, 2025, the validity period for initial and renewal employment authorization documents will be one year or the end date of the authorized parole period or duration of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), whichever is shorter for the following categories:

•Aliens paroled as refugees;

•Aliens granted TPS;

•Aliens granted parole;

•Aliens with a pending TPS application; and

•Alien spouse of entrepreneur parole.

On July 22, 2025, USCIS published a Federal Register notice and issued an announced implementation of H.R. 1. These validity period requirements apply to any Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, pending or filed on or after July 22, 2025.

* * *

In other news, USCIS also announced the establishment of a specialized unit to strengthen the ability of America’s immigration system to screen out terrorists, criminal aliens, and other foreign nationals who pose potential threats to public safety or who have committed crimes. Once fully operationalized, the USCIS Vetting Center, headquartered in Atlanta, will centralize the enhanced vetting of aliens and allow the agency to respond more nimbly to changes in a shifting threat landscape.

Once the new vetting center is fully operational, it will draw on the full spectrum of classified and non-classified screening and vetting capabilities and provide a more thorough supplemental review of immigration applications and petitions. These reviews will leverage state-of-the-art technologies, including artificial intelligence.

The center will utilize Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement and intelligence community screening resources to conduct this critical work and will be tasked with conducting reviews of pending applications as well as a more holistic review of already-approved applications for aliens. Reviews will prioritize applications from presidentially-designated countries of concern.

This announcement adds to a series of recent efforts that align with presidential Executive Order 14161, Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats. These include the recent implementation of national security measures allowing for immigration officers to consider negative, country-specific factors (such as a nation’s lack of government-issued identity documents and inability to conduct criminal background checks) when vetting aliens from 19 high-risk countries, the recent pause on affirmative asylum application decisions, record-breaking hiring numbers for new USCIS homeland defenders, a proposed rule to ensure more robust screening and vetting of certain aliens before extending their employment authorizations, and the establishment of USCIS special agents with law enforcement authority to investigate, arrest, and prosecute immigration violations.