What changed
Form I-765 is the application for a work permit, the Employment Authorization Document (EAD). On October 2, 2017, USCIS announced that the form now carried extra questions so an applicant could ask the Social Security Administration (SSA) for a Social Security number at the same time. The release described it as a way to “apply for an SSN or replacement card without visiting a Social Security office,” and said people who received their EAD “should receive their Social Security card from SSA within the following two weeks.”
Those questions are gone. The edition of Form I-765 posted on uscis.gov today, dated 08/21/25, asks one thing about Social Security, at Part 2, Item 13: “Provide your Social Security number (SSN) (if known).” There is no question asking whether you want SSA to issue a card, and no consent box for USCIS to share your information with SSA. The instructions for the same edition contain no procedure for requesting a number.
We did not find a USCIS news release or a Federal Register notice announcing the removal, so we cannot give you the agency's own date or reason. What USCIS does say, in an alert on the same page, is that a further revised edition (09/15/26) will be published on Sept. 15, 2026; that the 08/21/25 edition is accepted only if it is “postmarked or electronically submitted before Sept. 15, 2026”; and that there is “no grace period.”
Who this is about
Anyone who files Form I-765 and does not yet have a Social Security number, or needs a replacement card. The joint request no longer exists on the form, so the number is a separate matter with the Social Security Administration, the agency that issues it.
The USCIS page does not describe that separate process for applicants in general. The one place it does, in a note written for Afghan parolees, says the applicant “must make an appointment to visit a Social Security Administration office in person to apply for your SSN after you receive your Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766).” We could not open SSA's own pages to confirm the current procedure for everyone else, so we are not describing it here.
What it does not mean
- It does not mean a work permit is harder to get. Nothing on the USCIS page ties this to who can receive an EAD. It is about one set of questions that no longer appears on the form.
- It does not mean the right to a Social Security number went away. The 2017 release described the joint request as a convenience, a way to get the number “without visiting a Social Security office.” That convenience is what is gone.
- It does not mean an older edition with the SSN questions can still be used. USCIS says it accepts the 08/21/25 edition until Sept. 15, 2026, and only the 09/15/26 edition from that day on.
- It does not mean an existing number changes. Item 13 still asks for it if you have one.
What to do with this
If a work-permit application is in progress or planned, and the timing of a Social Security number matters for a job, talk to a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative at a recognized nonprofit. Questions about the number itself are the Social Security Administration's to answer. The organizations below are a place to start.
Advocasí is not a law firm. We explain what a policy says and help people prepare their own paperwork once a qualified advisor has told them which path applies.