H-1B Spouses Sue US Over Ending Automatic Work Permit Extensions

A Department of Homeland Security rule ending automatic extension of immigrants’ work permits with pending renewal applications is unlawful and should be set aside, a new lawsuit filed by spouses of H-1B visa holders argues.

The October interim final rule eliminating those work permit extensions violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it was arbitrary and capricious and failed to establish good cause for skipping notice and comment rulemaking, according to a complaint in the Central District of California.

The rule’s impact was far reaching, affecting asylum seekers and refugees as well as spouses of high-skilled foreign workers on H-1B visas most heavily used by the tech sector. Employer groups and immigrant advocates expect to see tens of thousands of long-term employees pushed out of the workforce in the coming months.

Plaintiffs include workers at an accounting firm, an office supply company, and a national bank. Some have already lost employment authorization as a result of the rule, which is part of larger Trump administration efforts to restrict access to asylum and other humanitarian immigration benefits.

Immigrants renewing employment authorization documents have for years received an automatic grace period of 180 days when their work permit expires before their application is processed. Under the Biden administration, DHS issued regulations extending that grace period to 540 days with an eye to mounting backlogs.

Spouses of H-1B visa holders are admitted to the US on H-4 visas. They are typically highly educated themselves but must apply separately for employment authorization in the US. They can only seek work permits after their spouse on an H-1B visa completes the initial steps to secure a permanent immigrant visa.

Foreign nationals can only apply to renew work permits within 180 days of their expiration. For H-4 visa holders, the timeline for renewing can be even tighter because their legal status and employment authorization must coincide with their spouse’s status.

DHS cited national security concerns in ending automatic work permit extensions in October. It also cited public safety to invoke a good cause exception to APA notice and comment requirements, making the rule effective immediately after publication in the Federal Register.

“The administration’s true rationale, stripping the ability of people lawfully in the U.S. to sustain themselves, is embarrassingly obvious,” the complaint said.

The purported justification of the rule—additional screening of immigrants—is also false, the suit argues, because DHS has programs allowing the agency to continuously vet individuals without adjudicating applications at a specific point in time.

The new employment restrictions were preceded by regulatory moves in the first Trump administration that led to ballooning wait times for H-4 visa holders to renew work permits. DHS crafted proposed regulations to eliminate employment authorization for those visa holders entirely and also added new biometric requirements that made processing of work permits grind to a halt.

Although it failed to complete a rule ending work permits entirely for H-1B spouses, the administration “accomplished the same end by creating processing burdens, and pretextual biometric collections,” according to the suit. DHS in October also unveiled a new proposal to expand current biometric requirements, including possible collection of DNA data.

Plaintiffs are represented by the Law Offices of Justin Tseng and Wasden Law.

The case is Doe v. US Department of Homeland Security, C.D. Cal., No. 8:26-cv-00060, complaint filed 1/8/26 .