This feature enables the automatic update of Form I-9 Section 2 to reflect the extended expiration date of an employee's Employment Authorization Document (EAD) in cases where their EAD has been automatically extended. It is applicable to all pending Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization) submissions seeking a renewal of employment authorization and/or EAD before the current EAD expires.

Before Prior to May 4, 2022, the EADs' automatic extension period for expiring EADs expiration was 180 days. Starting on On May 4, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) temporarily extended this automatic extension period to an additional 360 days, totaling resulting in a total extension of up to 540 days of extended authorization. However, this additional extra extension period concluded ended on October 26, 2023.  For For Form I-765 renewal applications filed submitted after October 26, 2023, the standard regular 180-day automatic extension period will be in effectis applicable.

To enable this the auto extension feature, the following two setup options are required:

• Enable EAD Auto Extension Auto Create - Check this checkbox if you wish to schedule a batch process which runs on weekdays (Monday to Friday) in recurrence for auto creating the transactions with EAD expiration date extending to 180 days.
• Summary Digest Notification Pool - Contains a list of contacts for sending email notification when auto creation of EAD extension process is triggered. 
  
  

When EAD Auto Extension is enabled, it launches invitations for the I-9s that are eligible for auto extension and opens Section 2 activity for the I-9 Specialists in edit mode with EAD expiration date extended to upto 180 days. 

How to enable EAD Auto Extension Auto Create process in I-9 Options?

...

If you want to setup other processes (Reverification/Receipt update or both), enter those details as well and click "Save".

The list of contacts specified email containing the total number of I-9s with generated additional tasks will be sent to the contacts listed in the notification pool will receive the following email with the total I-9s that are auto extended.

What transactions are eligible for auto create EAD auto extension process?

...

1. The process associated with the I-9 ID must be in completed status (E-Verification completed) with EAD as document title in Section 2 and the category code entered must be the eligibility category code/class requested for extension (Eligibility Category Codes - A03, A05, A07, A08, A10, A12, A17, A18, C08, C09, C10, C16, C19, C20, C22, C24, C26, C31).
   Note: Transactions completed with E-Verification on hold like "Applied for SSN" do not qualify for EAD auto extension.
2. EAD expiration date in Section 2 becomes current or expires in one or two days compared to the current date (current date + 1/current date + 2) and satisfies one of the following conditions:
   1. less than or equal to work authorization expiration date in Section 1 
   2. "No Expiration Date" checked for work authorization with Form I-94 Admission Number/Foreign Passport Number in Section 1 
3. Should not have Supplement B Reverificationthe reverification done on the I-9. 
4. The I-9 should must be in an active state and should not have the termination date set to the current date if , in case it already exists. If the termination date exists with is already set to the current date, then the transaction will not be picked up by included in the batch process, even if it otherwise qualifies for EAD auto extension even though the transaction qualifies for it.  

The above points are explained in detail with an exampleexamples below. 

Consider a process completed transaction satisfying the above conditions.

...

When the Document Title is EAD (Form I-766), an additional field is populated in Section 2 to capture the eligibility category code. Selecting this field is optional.

For the transaction to be eligible for EAD auto extension, having a value in this field is a must. The eligibility Category Code/Class Requested must exist and the value is required and the value must be one of the category codes - A03, A05, A07, A08, A10, A12, A17, A18, C08, C09, C10, C16, C19, C20, C22, C24, C26, C31.  . 

Note: If Section 2 is completed without selecting a value in category code, the transaction will not be not eligible for EAD auto extension.

...

In this example, the EAD expiration date in Section 2 is equal to the work authorization expiration date in Section 1. Therefore, the transaction gets picked up for the EAD auto extension when the batch process runs.

3) Supplement B for reverification should not exist for reverification

Transactions that have gone through Supplement B for reverification will not be picked up for EAD auto extension. This can be verified for the transaction in its Form I-9 Master.

...

Review the extended EAD expiration date. In the Additional Information enter if any note/comment has needs to be added. If an alternative procedure is used for remote verification of documents, indicate this by selecting the "Check here if you used an alternative procedure authorized by DHS to examine documents" checkbox. 

If this checkbox is selected, system enforces to provide I-9 supporting documents as attachments in Section 2. In this case, any attachments from provided in Section 1 will not be considered. For more details on uploading attachments, please click here.

Note: This alternative process is allowed exclusively when the Legal Entity (Company/Business Unit) responsible for the employee's hiring is registered for E-Verify, which means the Company or Business Unit has been configured in the DHS Client Setup. If the legal Entity (Company/Business Unit) is not enrolled in E-Verify, this checkbox will be disabled.

If the attachment is not provided, the following error message will be displayed on the page.

Note: If Section 2 is assigned to a remote user, and if the checkbox indicating "Check here if you used an alternative procedure authorized by DHS to examine documents" is checked by the remote user in Section 2, they are required to upload the supporting documents when completing the activity. In this case, the I-9 Specialist need not add the attachments while completing the Section 2 review.

After entering the details, check "I Agree" checkbox and electronically sign.

...