Evidence of Employment Authorization for E and L Nonimmigrant Spouses
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.
Links:
USCIS Announcement: https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/covid-19-form-i-9-related-news/documentation-of-employment-authorization-for-certain-e-and-l-nonimmigrant-dependent-spouses
USCIS March 8, 2022 Policy Alert: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/policy-manual-updates/20220318-EmploymentAuthorization.pdf