Work Authorization Documents: I-9 Lists, EAD Costs, and Renewals

Work authorization documents are the papers that prove you can legally hold a job in the United States, and every employer has to check them for every new hire by completing Form I-9 within three business days of your start date.¹ If you’re a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you already have what you need. If you’re neither, the document that usually does the job is the Employment Authorization Document (EAD), and the rules for getting and keeping one changed sharply in late 2025: shorter validity periods, new fees on top of the old ones, and no more automatic extension while a renewal sits at USCIS.

What Counts as a Work Authorization Document

The I-9 sorts acceptable documents into three lists. One document from List A proves both who you are and that you can work. If you don’t have a List A document, you combine one List B document (identity) with one List C document (work authorization). You choose which documents to show. The employer doesn’t.

List A: Both at Once

Any single one of these completes the I-9 on its own:²

U.S. passport or passport card
Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551), commonly called a Green Card
Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766)
Foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp or a printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa
Foreign passport with a Form I-94 endorsed for work
Passport from the Federated States of Micronesia or the Republic of the Marshall Islands with a Form I-94 showing admission under the Compact of Free Association

List B: Identity Only

These show who you are but say nothing about your right to work, so you pair one with a List C document. The usual choices are a state driver’s license or ID card, a federal, state, or local government photo ID, a school ID with a photo, a voter registration card, a U.S. military card or draft record, a military dependent’s ID, a Coast Guard Merchant Mariner card, a Native American tribal document, or a Canadian driver’s license.² For employees under 18, certain school, clinic, hospital, and daycare records also qualify.

List C: Work Authorization Only

These prove your right to work but don’t establish your identity by themselves. The main ones are an unrestricted Social Security card (cards marked “NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT” or “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION” don’t count), a state, county, or municipal birth certificate with an official seal, a State Department certification of birth abroad (Forms DS-1350, FS-545, or FS-240), a Native American tribal document, a U.S. Citizen ID Card (Form I-197), and certain DHS-issued employment authorization documents including some Form I-94 records issued to asylees and Form I-571 Refugee Travel Documents.²

Applying for an EAD

If nothing on those lists already fits your situation, you likely need an Employment Authorization Document, which you request by filing Form I-765. This is the route for asylum applicants, people with pending adjustment-of-status applications, certain parolees, Temporary Protected Status holders, F-1 students seeking Optional Practical Training, DACA recipients, and many others.³

Part 2 of the form asks for an eligibility category code, and picking the wrong one is the fastest way to get rejected. A pending asylum applicant uses (c)(8); someone already granted asylum uses (a)(5); a person with a pending adjustment of status under INA 245 uses (c)(9).⁴ The I-765 instructions carry the full list; match yours against your actual immigration status before filing.

Along with the form, you send two identical color passport-style photos (2 by 2 inches, white or off-white background, taken recently), and in most cases your A-Number, a copy of a government-issued photo ID, and evidence of your current immigration status such as a Form I-94.⁴ Several categories can file online through the USCIS portal, including (c)(8), (c)(9), (c)(11), F-1 OPT applicants, TPS applicants, and DACA recipients.⁵ If your category isn’t eligible for online filing, the paper form goes to the USCIS Lockbox that matches your category and state.

What It Costs in 2026

Since HR-1 (Pub. L. 119-21) passed in 2025, many EAD applicants now pay two separate fees: the existing DHS regulatory fee for Form I-765 and a new HR-1 fee that depends on your category. The two payments have to be submitted separately.⁶

The HR-1 fees for fiscal year 2026, adjusted for inflation, are:⁷

Initial asylum applicant EAD: $560
Renewal or extension of asylum applicant EAD: $275
Initial parole EAD: $560
Renewal or extension of parole EAD: $280
Initial TPS EAD: $560
Renewal or extension of TPS EAD: $280

The HR-1 fees can’t be waived or reduced for any reason. The older DHS regulatory fee for Form I-765 can still be waived on financial-hardship grounds using Form I-912, but even applicants who qualify for that waiver still have to pay the HR-1 portion in full.⁶

How Long an EAD Now Lasts

EAD validity periods were cut sharply in late 2025. Before December 2025, USCIS was issuing EADs valid for up to five years in several common categories. As of December 5, 2025, the maximum dropped to 18 months for:⁸

Refugees (A03)
Asylees (A05)
Recipients of withholding of removal (A10)
Pending asylum or withholding of removal applicants (C08)
Pending adjustment of status applicants (C09)
Pending suspension of deportation, cancellation of removal, or NACARA relief applicants (C10)

For parolees and TPS holders in categories A04, A12, C11, C19, and C34, HR-1 goes further: the EAD is valid for the shorter of one year or the end date of the underlying parole period or TPS designation.⁸ Most EAD holders now renew far more often, and every renewal is another set of fees.

Renewing an EAD After October 2025

This is where the biggest change hit. For years, filing a timely renewal automatically extended your existing EAD while USCIS worked through it. That cushion started at 180 days and was eventually stretched to 540 days. It’s gone for renewals filed on or after October 30, 2025.⁹ The regulation now says the validity of an expired or expiring EAD “will not be automatically extended by a request for renewal.”¹⁰ If your current card expires while your renewal is still pending, you cannot legally work until the new card arrives.

Renewals that were already pending before October 30, 2025, still get the old 540-day automatic extension. Everyone filing after that date needs to plan for a gap. File as early as USCIS allows, which is up to 180 days before your current EAD expires, and expect the wait between cards to matter for both your paycheck and your immigration record.

Replacing a Lost, Stolen, or Damaged Card

If your EAD is lost, stolen, or destroyed, you file a new Form I-765 and pay the applicable fee to get a replacement.¹¹ The DHS portion of the fee can still be waived on hardship grounds. If USCIS mailed a card that never showed up, file a non-delivery inquiry through the USCIS website before starting over. In the meantime, your employer can accept a receipt showing you applied for the replacement, and that receipt is good for 90 days, during which you have to present the actual replacement card.² A receipt only works for replacing a document you already had; it doesn’t work for a first-time EAD you’re still waiting on.

If You Have a Pending Adjustment of Status: The Combo Card

Applicants with a pending family-based or employment-based Form I-485 can request a single card that works as both an EAD and an advance parole travel document. You file Form I-765 and Form I-131 together, using identical names and addresses on both.¹² The card comes back with the notation “Serves as I-512 Advance Parole” and functions as a List A document at the I-9 stage. One caution about the travel side: the card authorizes parole into the country, not admission. A CBP officer at the port of entry still decides whether to grant parole when you arrive, so reentry is never guaranteed by the card alone.

Your Rights During the I-9 Process

You choose which acceptable documents to present. The employer has to accept any document that reasonably appears genuine and relates to you.¹³ An employer who demands a specific document (say, a Green Card) after you’ve already offered a valid combination (say, a driver’s license and an unrestricted Social Security card) is committing what’s called document abuse. Requiring extra or different documents from workers who “look foreign” or “sound foreign” is discrimination under the same law. If this happens to you, you can file a charge with the Justice Department’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section within 180 days of the discriminatory act.

What Happens If You Work Without Authorization

Working without valid authorization has serious immigration consequences. It can be used as grounds for removal, can trigger bars on reentry or on future immigration benefits, and for people with pending applications can undermine the underlying case. Adjustment-of-status applicants are especially exposed, because unlawful employment can be treated as evidence of immigration fraud.

The point that matters most under the new rules: if your EAD expires while your renewal is pending and you keep working, that work is unauthorized, regardless of whether the renewal is eventually approved. With automatic extensions gone for renewals filed on or after October 30, 2025, that’s not a hypothetical anymore.⁹ File as early as USCIS allows, keep a copy of everything, and plan for the gap.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-9 Acceptable Documents
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-765, Application for Employment Authorization
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-765 Instructions
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Forms Available to File Online
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Federal Register. USCIS Immigration Fees Required by HR-1 Reconciliation Bill
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Announces FY 2026 Inflation Increase for Certain Immigration-Related Fees
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Reduced Validity Periods for Newly Issued Employment Authorization Documents
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. DHS Ends Automatic Extension of Employment Authorization
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eCFR. 8 CFR 274a.13 – Application for Employment Authorization
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Employment Authorization Document
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS to Issue Employment Authorization and Advance Parole Card for Adjustment of Status Applicants – Questions and Answers
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1324b – Unfair Immigration-Related Employment Practices