I-765 Application for Employment Authorization
The work permit application. It produces an Employment Authorization Document, which also works as photo identification and as a basis for a Social Security number. The eligibility category code chosen in Part 2 decides everything - the fee, whether a fee waiver is possible, and how long the card lasts.
- Fee
- $520 paper, $470 online for most categories. $260 if you filed an I-485 with a fee on or after April 1, 2024 and it is still pending. $0 if you have a pending I-485 filed between July 30, 2007 and March 31, 2024 with the fee paid; if USCIS made a card error; and for refugees, asylees, T and U nonimmigrants, Special Immigrant Juveniles, VAWA self-petitioners, withholding grantees, and current and former U.S. armed forces service members. Non-waivable Public Law 119-21 fees apply on top for certain categories: $560 for an initial TPS (a)(12), ABC asylum (c)(8), parolee (c)(11) or TPS applicant (c)(19) EAD, and $280 for renewals in those categories and for (c)(8) asylum-applicant renewals.
- Fee waiver
- partial
- Who files
- Anyone with a category that allows an EAD: asylum applicants, adjustment applicants, TPS holders and applicants, DACA recipients, parolees, certain spouses of workers, students on OPT, and others.
- Where to file
- Online through a USCIS account, or by mail to the lockbox named for the category.
- Processing time
- 3.7 months for most categories, 0.7 months on a pending asylum application, 5.1 months on a pending I-485, 3.4 months on DACA, 5.9 months on parole (FY 2026 national medians through June 30, 2026)
Usually filed with
Part of these processes
- Adjustment of status inside the United States
- Affirmative asylum with USCIS
- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
- Employment authorisation document
- Humanitarian and significant public benefit parole
- Student visas and student work authorisation
- T nonimmigrant status for trafficking victims
- Temporary Protected Status
- U nonimmigrant status for crime victims
- VAWA self-petition for abused spouses, children and parents
What changed in 2025 and 2026
- A 2025 interim final rule ended automatic extensions of most EADs on renewal, so a renewal filed late now means a gap in work authorisation. As of February 5, 2026 the Public Law 119-21 parolee EAD fees do not apply to Ms. L. class members. The 08/21/25 edition is current.
Official page. https://www.uscis.gov/i-765. Download the form there, never from a third-party site; check the edition date and fee before filing.