This option can be used to automatically update I-9 Section 2 EAD expiration date for the employee transactions who received automatic extension to their expiring Employment Authorization Documents. Prior to May 4, 2022 the automatic extension period for the expiring EAD was 180 days. Effective May 4, 2022, the DHS has temporarily increased this automatic extension period to 540 days. This is applicable for all pending Form I-765 applications which have been filed for EAD renewal and eligible for auto extension.

The EAD auto extension details in I-9 Options include two setup options:

• 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 540 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 540 days. 

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

In the I-9 Options page, click the checkbox for "Enable EAD Auto Extension Auto Create".

This enables the batch process that is scheduled to run on weekdays (Monday - Friday) in recurrence which extends employee's EAD expiration date to 540 days for the eligible transactions.

For sending emails to users when this process is triggered, click on the lookup icon and select participant pool.

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 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?

The transactions must satisfy the following conditions to be considered 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, unless it is a "COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required" transaction.
   (List B - an acceptable expired document that has NOT been extended by the Issuing Authority i.e. the State DMV or State DPS and List C - Employment Authorized Document (DHS) with category code entered is the eligibility category code/class requested for extension. For details on "COVID-19 RUP: Receipt Update Required" transactions, please click here).
2. EAD expiration date in Section 2 becomes current or expires in one/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 Reverification. 
4. should not have the I-9 termination date set to current (if exists). If the termination date exists with current date, then the transaction will not be picked up by the batch process for EAD auto extension even though the transaction qualifies for it.  

The above points are explained in detail with an example. 

Consider a process completed transaction satisfying the above conditions.

1) In List A or List C the Document Title must be Employment Authorization Document (EAD)

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

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

2)The Section 2 EAD document expiration date must be current date/current date + 1/current date + 2 and satisfy one of the following conditions:

• less than or equal to work authorization expiration date in Section 1 or 
• "No Expiration Date" checked for noncitizen authorized to work and having an entry for Form I-94 Admission Number/Foreign Passport Number in Section 1 

Though the transaction is eligible for auto extension of EAD, it will not be picked up by the batch process for EAD auto extension until the EAD expiration date in Section 2 becomes current or expires in one/two days compared to current date. 

Below example shows one of the possible scenarios:

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 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.

In this example, you can see the transaction has no Supplement B data in its I-9 Master.

4) should not have the I-9 termination date set to current or in the past (if exists)

In this case, the I-9 has no termination date set. If exists, then the date should not be less than or equal to the current date. 

Navigate to Set/View termination Date page through Info and Actions in I-9 Console.

If the termination date exists, then it would show up on this page and also in the I-9 Master. Since the Termination date is not set for the selected I-9 ID, there is no display of date on this page or in the I-9 Master.

How do you complete Section 2 for EAD auto extended transactions?

The EAD auto extended transactions show under My Tasks Console and in Keyword Search My Tasks Category for the I-9 Specialist. These transactions will have the Business Process as 'Sec-2 Corr|Receipt Upd|EAD Ext'. 

Click on the "Complete I-9" link.

The Section 2 opens up with 540 days added to the previous expiration date.

Note: The "I-9 Section 2 Correction Reason" is automatically completed with reason as "EAD Auto Extension". Since the E-Verification is already completed with the primary process, the E-Verify option here is not selected. 

The completed activity of I-9 Section 2 Correction Reason shows as below.

In Section 2. the document expiration date is populated with 540 days added to the previous expiration date. Note that, an additional note "EAD EXT: Extended by 540 days" is also added in the Additional Information field. 

Review the extended expiration date for the EAD document.

In the Additional Information enter if any note/comment has 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 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.

To complete Section 2 activity, check "I Agree" checkbox and electronically sign.

After completing this process, the extended expiration date in Section 2 is updated as Work Authorization End Date in I-9 Master (irrespective of the work authorization expiration date in I-9 Section 1).