If you are waiting on a work permit based on a pending asylum application, you have probably seen the number 365 somewhere and felt your stomach drop. Here is the plain version: the 365-day rule is a proposal. It is not law, it has not taken effect, and as of today it does not change a single deadline in your case. The 180-day wait is still the 180-day wait.

That is the most important sentence in this article, and it is the one most likely to get lost. Proposed immigration rules get reported as though they already happened, and asylum seekers end up making decisions — quitting a job, not filing, paying someone for "emergency" help — based on a rule that may never be finalized in the form it was written.

What DHS actually proposed

On February 23, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking titled Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants at 91 FR 8616. It carries RIN 1615-AC97 and DHS Docket No. USCIS-2025-0370. In the agency's own words, the proposal would change "filing and eligibility requirements for aliens requesting employment authorization and an employment authorization document (EAD) based on a pending asylum application."

Three changes matter most to anyone tracking an asylum clock.

The waiting period would roughly double. Today, an asylum applicant can file Form I-765 once 150 days have passed since the asylum application was filed, and USCIS cannot approve it until 180 days have accrued. The proposal would extend "the waiting period to apply for employment authorization to 365 days." That is a full year of waiting before an application can even be submitted.

USCIS could stop accepting EAD applications entirely. This is the provision that gets the least attention and deserves the most. The proposal includes "pausing acceptance of EAD applications from asylum applicants during periods when affirmative asylum average processing time exceeds 180 days." Read that carefully. Affirmative asylum processing times have run well beyond 180 days for years. A rule that suspends work-permit filing whenever processing is slow, applied to a system that is chronically slow, could close the door for long stretches rather than briefly.

New eligibility requirements and processing changes. The proposal also covers "changing EAD application processing time requirements, and adding eligibility requirements." The old 30-day adjudication guarantee for initial asylum EADs is long gone; this would go further.

Where the rule actually stands right now

The comment period closed on April 24, 2026. Since then, DHS has not published a final rule. A search of the Federal Register's own records for DHS employment-authorization rulemaking shows the February document still classified as a Proposed Rule, with no final version issued.

That matters legally, not just semantically. A notice of proposed rulemaking has no force. Until DHS publishes a final rule with an effective date, the existing regulation governs, and the existing regulation is the one built around 150 and 180 days. If you filed your asylum application and your clock has reached 150 days, your eligibility to file Form I-765 is unchanged today.

It is also worth knowing what a final rule would not automatically do. Agencies can be sued over rules that skip required procedure, and in 2026 that has already happened to other USCIS fee and work-permit policies, with a federal court blocking parts of them. A published final rule is the beginning of a fight, not the end of one.

A separate proposal that does not apply to you

On June 5, 2026, DHS published a second proposal, Clarification of Discretionary Employment Authorization for Certain Aliens (RIN 1615-AC98), and it is frequently confused with the first. That one addresses discretionary work authorization for people paroled into the United States, people granted deferred action, and people released under an order of supervision after a final removal order. Pending asylum applicants filing under category C08 are a different basis for employment authorization and are not the subject of that rule.

What to do while this is pending

Keep your clock accurate. The single most common reason an asylum seeker loses work-permit eligibility has nothing to do with proposed rules — it is clock stoppages caused by delays attributed to the applicant, like rescheduling an interview or failing to submit requested evidence. If you are unsure where you stand, our explainer on the 150-day and 180-day rules walks through how the two numbers differ and why only one of them lets you file.

File as soon as you are eligible. If your clock has reached 150 days, there is no advantage to waiting. Filing under current rules is how you avoid being caught by a future one.

Be skeptical of urgency. Anyone telling you to pay immediately because "the rule changed to 365 days" is either misinformed or selling something. Ask them to name the Federal Register citation and effective date. A real change will have both.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the 365-day asylum work permit rule in effect right now?

No. It is a proposed rule published on February 23, 2026 at 91 FR 8616. The comment period closed April 24, 2026 and DHS has not published a final rule. The existing 150-day filing and 180-day approval framework still governs.

If the rule is finalized, would it apply to asylum applications already pending?

The proposal does not settle that, and the final rule would have to state its own applicability and effective date. Agencies sometimes apply new EAD rules only to applications filed after the effective date and sometimes more broadly. Until a final rule is published with that language, nobody can tell you for certain, and anyone who claims otherwise is guessing.

What does "pausing acceptance of EAD applications" mean in practice?

As proposed, USCIS would stop accepting work permit applications from asylum applicants during periods when average affirmative asylum processing time is above 180 days. Because processing has exceeded that threshold for extended periods, the practical effect could be long stretches when no new asylum-based work permit application can be filed at all.

Does this proposal change my asylum case itself?

No. It addresses employment authorization based on a pending asylum application. It does not change asylum eligibility, the one-year filing deadline for Form I-589, or how an asylum claim is decided.

Sources

Primary sources for this article: the Federal Register entry for Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants, 91 FR 8616 (Feb. 23, 2026), and the public docket USCIS-2025-0370 on Regulations.gov, which holds the proposal and the comments filed on it.

This article describes federal rulemaking as of its publication date and is general information, not legal advice about your case.