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 applications seeking a renewal of employment authorization and/or EAD before the current EAD expires.

Prior to May 4, 2022, Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) were automatically extended for up to 180 days upon expiration. On May 4, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) temporarily extended this period to an additional 360 days, resulting in a total extension of up to 540 days of authorization. However, DHS terminated this extended period on October 26, 2023, reverting the auto extension back to 180 days. 

Once again, on April 8th, 2024, DHS announced a temporary final rule (89 FR 24628), increasing the automatic extension period of employment authorization and/or Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766 or EAD) validity from 180 days to up to 540 days from the expiration date.

According to DHS, this temporary extension of employment authorization to up to 540 days applies to applicants who submitted Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization renewal applications on or after Oct. 27, 2023, and whose applications are still pending as of April 8, 2024. It also covers eligible applicants who submitted a Form I-765 renewal application on or after April 8, 2024, but no later than Sept 30, 2025. Following this temporary final rule, the automatic extension period for qualifying EADs will revert to up to 180 days for applicants who submit Form I-765 renewal applications after Sept. 30, 2025.

To enable the auto extension feature in Smart Onboarding/Smart I-9 applications, 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 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 I-9s eligible for auto extension during batch processing. The Section 2 activity will be open for processing in edit mode with EAD expiration date extended up 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 180 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 email containing the total number of I-9s with generated additional tasks will be sent to the contacts listed in the notification pool.

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 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 the reverification done on the I-9. 
4. The I-9 must be in an active state and should not have the termination date set to the current date, in case it already exists. If the termination date is already set to the current date, the transaction will not be included in the batch process, even if it otherwise qualifies for EAD auto extension.

The above points are explained with examples below. 

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) and the category code entered must be the eligibility category code/class requested for extension.

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 eligibility Category Code/Class Requested 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.

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 Section 2 EAD document expiration date is equal to the work authorization expiration date in Section 1.

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 be performed on the transaction

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 reverification data in its I-9 Master.

4) The I-9 should be active and should not have the termination date set to current date if already exists.

In this example, the I-9 is active and has no termination date is set. 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.

For navigating to I-9 Master, click on the I-9 ID link for the corresponding transaction in I-9 Console and select "I-9 Master" option.

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

The EAD auto extended transactions show in the My Tasks Console and in Keyword Search "My Tasks" category for the I-9 Specialist. These transactions can be identified by their Business Process as "Sec-2 Corr|Receipt Upd|EAD Ext". 

To process these transactions,  search by Invitation ID or name in the My Task Console or in the "My Tasks" category of the Keyword Search. Then, select the "Complete I-9" link on the specific row. If the row does not appear in the My Tasks Console, it indicates that the transaction has not been picked up by the batch process.

The Section 2 opens up with 540 days added to its 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 selected as "No". 

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

In Section 2, the document expiration date is updated by adding 540 days to its previous expiration date. Additionally, an additional note stating "EAD EXT: Extended by 540 days" will be included in the Additional Information field. Review the extended EAD expiration date. In the Additional Information, enter if any note/comment 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. 

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 appear disabled.

When this checkbox is selected, it is required to attach supporting documents. 

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. 

Note: Though the checkbox indicating "Check here if you used an alternative procedure authorized by DHS to examine documents" is not selected, you will still be prompted for uploading attachments especially if attachments are configured as mandatory in I-9 activities. If prompted, please upload the required attachments.

After the details are reviewed and updated, select "I Agree" checkbox and electronically sign. 

Upon completion, the updated document expiration date will be reflected as the I-9 work authorization end date in the additional notes of the completed Section 2 activity as well as in the I-9 Master.