What is an EAD?

US citizens and lawful permanent residents do not need an EAD — their passport or green card establishes the right to work. Neither do people in categories where work authorisation comes directly from their status with a specific employer, such as H-1B or L-1, where the petition itself authorises the employment.

EADs are for the categories in between. Common ones include F-1 students on OPT or STEM OPT, certain H-4 and L-2 spouses, people with a pending adjustment of status application, asylum applicants and those granted asylum, Temporary Protected Status holders, and several humanitarian categories.

The category is printed on the card itself, and it matters — the conditions attached to an EAD depend on which one it was issued under.

The application is Form I-765, filed with USCIS, with evidence supporting the category claimed and a fee that varies by category — some are exempt.

Processing times vary widely by category and by service centre and have at times run to many months. The card carries a validity period, and work is authorised only within the dates printed on it. You may not begin work because the application was filed, or because it was approved, but only once the card is in hand and valid.

Renewals should be filed well ahead. The recommended window is typically up to 180 days before expiry, and filing late is the most common cause of a gap in authorisation.

For many categories, a timely-filed renewal automatically extends the existing authorisation for a defined period while the new card is processed. The length of that automatic extension has changed more than once in recent years.

In those cases the worker's expired EAD, together with the receipt notice showing the timely filing, can establish continued authorisation for I-9 purposes — the employee has not lost the right to work merely because the card's printed date has passed.

Employers who do not know this sometimes suspend or terminate employees who remain fully authorised, which creates both an employment problem and a discrimination exposure. Not every category qualifies for an automatic extension, so the right response to an expiring EAD is to check the category and the receipt, not to assume either way.

It is not a visa, and it does not give you status. It documents permission to work that flows from a status you already hold or have applied for. If the underlying status ends, the EAD does not keep you employable just because the card has not expired.

It is not a green card either, although people with a pending adjustment of status application frequently hold one while they wait — which is why the two are so often confused.

An EAD is a List A document for Form I-9: it establishes both identity and work authorisation on its own, so no further documents should be requested.

Because EADs expire, the position has to be reverified by the expiry date. For a staffing firm with contractors on multiple assignments, that date belongs on the employee record with an alert ahead of it. The failure that actually happens is not a bad hiring decision — it is a card that expired in month seven of a twelve-month assignment while everyone was busy.