Two regulatory changes affecting foreign workers on H-1B and related visa categories are being pursued by the administration: one would dismantle the existing pathway through which workers in unchanged circumstances can obtain routine extensions to their status, while the other would convert into permanent regulation a previously enacted rollback of the automatic work-authorisation renewals that had been available to qualifying spouses and other eligible foreign nationals.
Advance copies of the two directives — one originating from the Department of Homeland Security and the other from US Citizenship and Immigration Services — were made available for public inspection in the Federal Register on Tuesday, ahead of their formal Wednesday publication date.
Those with roots in India — who account for the largest portion of H-1B approvals and whose partners often hold H-4 employment authorisation — are positioned to encounter a disproportionate share of the proposed policy's practical consequences.
One provision targeted by the first of the two measures would eliminate the longstanding requirement that USCIS treat a prior approval as generally binding when reviewing an extension petition built on the same underlying facts. Adopted through a formal rulemaking notice released in December 2024 during the outgoing administration's closing stretch, the regulation addresses extension requests filed by workers holding H-1B and L-1 visa status.
The department argued that realigning its rules with the statute would produce a closer fit with existing law, which assigns the responsibility of demonstrating eligibility for immigration-related benefits to whoever files the petition, submits the application, or stands as the named beneficiary. Under the existing policy, the department noted, responsibility for defending a departure from a prior approval rests with the USCIS officer rather than with the applicant seeking relief.
The department contended that leaving the policy in place risked allowing wrongful approvals to persist while reducing the chances that petitions lacking merit or containing fraudulent claims would be identified. USCIS data gathered through on-site visits formed the evidentiary foundation the department drew on when advancing its proposal.
Among H-1B extension petitions reviewed under deference provisions between fiscal years 2022 and 2025, workplace inspections recorded a combined non-compliance and fraud rate of 22.39 per cent across the locations examined. Between the 2018 and 2020 fiscal years, a period when USCIS operated under a no-deference framework, the approval or denial rate stood at 16.77 per cent.
Among L-1A extension petitions, the denial rate stood at 24.46 per cent across the four-year stretch covering fiscal years 2022 through 2025, up from 18.37 per cent recorded over the three fiscal years running from 2018 to 2020.
Between fiscal years 2022 and 2025, roughly 208,429 extension petitions per year fell under the scope of what the deference provision was designed to cover, according to figures cited in the proposal. Of the 688,830 petitions lodged annually, that figure accounted for roughly three in every ten. A 30-day window for public comment opens once the rule appears in print.
The second document stands as a binding regulation, converting into permanent form the interim rule DHS had issued on 30 October 2025. Under that policy change, workers in certain application categories who had filed renewal requests on time lost the automatic extension of their Employment Authorisation Documents while those requests remained pending. Once the regulation is published, it enters into force.
Under the previous rules, submitting a renewal request before the deadline allowed a work permit to remain in force for as long as 540 days while that request moved through the queue. The agency's position held that removing the automatic-extension provision would reinforce the reliability of immigration benefit processes and place thorough vetting ahead of any renewed work authorisation approval.
Pushback against the measure came from a number of public commenters who identified themselves as spouses of H-1B visa holders living under H-4 status. Those commenters noted that H-4 employment authorisation renewals routinely stretch beyond the 180-day window set aside for filing, leaving workers exposed to breaks in their ability to hold a job.
Those who weighed in on the matter pointed out that breaks in work of this kind leave people at risk of forfeiting pay, losing access to medical coverage, and in some cases facing removal from their homes. Observers pointed out that the H-4 EAD programme's permit holders are predominantly female.
The department's position, set out in its formal reply, was that the regulation left intact the existing entitlement of H-4, L-2, and other employment-based dependants to seek work authorisation. The department held that granting automatic extensions to those groups raised the same questions around security and programme integrity as processing requests from any other applicant category.
Those relying on dependant status or awaiting adjustment of status paperwork may find their work permits lapse before new ones arrive, leaving wages, workplace benefits, and professional momentum at risk during the gap.
Projections from the department put the number of employment authorisation documents at risk of expiring across an 18-month window starting in May 2027 at anywhere between 20,000 and 33,000. Workforce disruption stemming from those changes was forecast to drain employer resources by roughly $138.1 million in lost output, with a further $312.1 million at risk should staff turnover rates climb across the same timeframe. Somewhere between 1,700 and 2,800 employers are projected to fall within the scope of the change.
