The extension is not optional. It is a legal statement that work remains authorized.
Some applicants have waited over 13 months for work permits, with recent approvals limited to minors with Spanish citizenship processed through CBP. USCIS changed work permit renewal rules on October 30, 2025, eliminating automatic extensions for most categories, increasing risk of employment authorization gaps.
- Some applicants have waited 13 months for work permits
- Recent approvals limited to minors with Spanish citizenship processed through CBP
- USCIS eliminated automatic extensions on October 30, 2025
- Contact USCIS at 1-800-375-5283; request InfoPass to reach an officer
Immigration attorney warns of 13-month delays in US work permit approvals, with selective processing of specific demographics. She advises applicants on contacting USCIS and warns employers illegally rejecting permit extensions.
Liudmila Marcelo, an immigration attorney, has been watching her clients disappear into a bureaucratic void. Some have been waiting thirteen months for work permits. Others are approaching the one-year mark. She knows their names, their situations, the specific dates they filed. And she knows that almost nothing is moving.
This week, Marcelo sat down to talk about what's happening in the system and what people trapped in these delays can actually do. The picture she painted is stark: approvals are trickling in, but only for a very narrow slice of applicants. In recent days, she received exactly two work permit approvals. Both were for minors born in Spain who entered the country through CBP with their families and are seeking status adjustment under the Cuban Adjustment Act. Both were Spanish citizens by birth, not Cuban. That pattern—minors with Spanish citizenship—keeps repeating in the cases USCIS is processing. Marcelo sees it clearly now. The government appears to be working through a specific demographic profile while everyone else waits.
For someone like Janet Almaguer, who has been waiting thirteen months, Marcelo's advice is direct and practical: call USCIS. The number is 1-800-375-5283, available Monday through Friday, eight in the morning to eight at night. When the automated system asks how it can help, say "InfoPass." That single word is the key. It's the only way to get routed to an actual officer instead of cycling through the automated menu. Another caller, Eli Fernández, shared an alternative that has worked for her: when InfoPass stops working, try saying "reschedule interview." The system connects you to a person almost immediately.
But the delays are only part of the problem. Marcelo flagged something else that is happening right now, in workplaces across the country: employers are rejecting work permit extensions. When a new permit hasn't arrived yet but the old one is about to expire, some employers are refusing to accept the extension notice—the official document stating that the work authorization remains valid during processing. They're telling workers they can't work. This is illegal, and Marcelo wants people to know it.
The extension is not optional. It's not something an employer gets to approve or deny. When USCIS issues an extension notice, it is a legal statement that the work permit has not actually expired; the government is simply granting additional time while the new document is being processed. The worker remains authorized. Marcelo's advice for anyone facing this rejection is to go directly to human resources—the person in charge of hiring and employment decisions—and bring the extension notice and the receipt proving it was filed. Bring documentation. Make it clear.
This problem became much more common after October 30, 2025, when USCIS changed how work permit renewals function. The agency eliminated automatic extensions for most categories of applicants. Before that date, if you filed for renewal, your authorization continued while you waited. Now it doesn't. The window between expiration and approval has become a danger zone. People can lose their legal right to work before their new permit arrives. Combined with the thirteen-month processing times Marcelo is seeing, the risk of falling into an employment authorization gap has grown significantly. For someone waiting over a year, the math is brutal. The old permit expires long before the new one arrives. Without an extension, they have nothing.
Citas Notables
The extension is not something an employer can accept or reject. It is a legal statement that the work permit has not expired; the government is granting additional time while processing continues.— Liudmila Marcelo, immigration attorney
Always insist on calling USCIS. When they ask how they can help, say InfoPass—it is the only way to reach an officer.— Liudmila Marcelo, immigration attorney
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why are only Spanish-born minors getting approvals right now? Is there something about their cases that makes them faster to process?
I don't think it's about the cases being simpler. I think USCIS is working through the backlog in a very specific order—maybe by category, maybe by entry point. These minors came through CBP, they have Spanish citizenship on record, they're seeking adjustment under the Cuban law. That's a clean profile. Everyone else is just waiting.
So if you're a Cuban-born adult, you're essentially stuck.
Right now, yes. The approvals she's seeing don't match that profile. It's not that those cases are denied—they're just not being touched.
Let me ask about the extension issue. Why would an employer reject an extension if it's legal?
Some employers don't understand what an extension is. They see the old permit expired and think the person can't work. Others might not care about the law. Either way, the worker has to educate them—bring the paperwork, show human resources that the extension is valid.
And if the employer still refuses?
Then you have a legal problem on your hands, and you need a lawyer. But most of the time, when HR sees the official document, they understand. They don't want liability.
The October 2025 policy change—that's when automatic extensions ended. Did that create most of these gaps?
It made them possible. Before that, you were covered while waiting. Now you're not. Combine that with thirteen-month delays and you see why people are calling in a panic.
What's the real bottleneck? Is it staffing? Is it intentional?
Marcelo didn't say. She just knows what's happening: some cases move, most don't, and the ones moving fit a pattern. That's what matters to the people waiting.