Controlling Alien Admission - Alien Employment - Employment Verification - Who Is Authorized to Accept Employment?
Generally speaking, three classes of aliens are eligible to accept employment in the United States. While most aliens must have a document showing their eligibility to work in the U.S. (known as an employment authorization document or "EAD"), some do not. This article outlines the circumstances in which EADs are required.
Aliens With Authorization Incident to Their Status
Some aliens are eligible to work simply by virtue of their status. While some are authorized to work for any employer, others may only work for a specific employer.
Work for Any Employer
Some aliens are eligible to work for any U.S. employer because of their status, such as lawful permanent residents, lawful temporary residents, refugees, and asylees. However, most of these aliens must apply for an EAD so they have evidence of their ability to work in the U.S. These aliens may use receipts that they applied for EADs for up to 90 days, and they may continue to work up to 240 days longer if their applications are not determined within that 90-day period.
The only groups that need not produce EADs are lawful permanent residents and temporary residents.
Work for a Specific Employer
Other aliens are eligible to work in the U.S. for specific employers because of their status. Although they need not obtain EADs because their travel documents contain stamps showing that they are authorized to work, these authorizations are time-limited. These aliens may only work for the employer that either sought their admission into the U.S. or that petitioned for them to receive their status after they were in the U.S. Some of these aliens include foreign government officials, who may only work for the governmental entity; employees of foreign government officials, who may only work for those officials; nonimmigrant treaty traders and investors, who may only work for the company that attained their status; temporary workers; and intracompany transferees.
Aliens with Official Authorization to Work
The final category of aliens that may work in the U.S. consists of aliens who hold official EADs showing their eligibility or whose applications for EADs have not been adjudicated in at least 90 days. These aliens may work for any employer. They include the spouse or unmarried minor child of a foreign government official or exchange visitor, as well as aliens with pending applications for asylum.
Copyright 2011 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
