Many immigrants with expiring work permits will be able to get an extension thanks to a change announced this week by Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The agency announced the change Tuesday, ahead of its publishing on the Federal Register on Wednesday.
It will go into effect immediately and is set to expand the automatic extension period for work permits to up to a year and a half for eligible applicants. More than a million immigrants were waiting on work permit applications as of February. The agency says funding troubles and staff shortages that were made worse by the pandemic are slowing down processing times.
It says the new extension will allow immigrants stalled by the process to continue working. The Wall Street Journal reports the change will immediately affect 87,000 immigrants with permits that are expired or about to be.
