06/09/2008 - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, announced on June 9, 2008 that US Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS") will begin issuing EADs for up to 2 years for certain applicants. In order to benefit from this new rule, 2 conditions must be met: : 1) the applicant for an EAD must be filed pursuant to a pending (or to be filed) employment based I-485 application; and 2) the I-485 application is likely to be pending for more than a year. A good example of confirming the second condition is if you are the beneficiary of a third preference employment based immigrant petition (EB-3) which, in accordance with the July 2008 visa bulletin was shown to be "unavailable." Under such scenario, the EB-3 beneficiary could reasonably expect his or her I-485 to continue to be pending for more than a year.

Secretary Chertoff stated that this new benefit will be implemented later in June 2008. This is very good news because of the time and money savings this will result. Previously, EAD validity was for one year which prompted employment based I-485 applicants to apply for EAD renewals on an annual basis thereby causing inconvenience and additional expenditure. If you have any questions regarding this new rule, call Gus Shihab or Sam Shihab at Shihab & Associates, Co., LPA in an office near your place of residence.