Evidence of Employment Authorization for E and L Nonimmigrant Spouses

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On March 8, 2022, USCIS issued a policy alert indicating it is updating the USCIS Policy Manual to reflect the documentation that certain E and L spouses may present as evidence of employment authorization incident to their status. 

Previously, on November 12, 2021, USCIS indicated that it would consider E and L spouses to be employment authorized incident to their status. Then, as of January 30, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began issuing I-94 documents with the following new class of admission (COA) codes for certain E and L spouses: E-1S, E-2S, E-3S, and L-2S.  

An unexpired Form I-94 reflecting one of these new codes is now considered acceptable evidence of employment authorization for spouses under List C (#7, Employment Authorization Document issued by the Department of Homeland Security) of Form I-9. Employees who provide this as a List C document must also provide a List B identity document, as well. 

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