On July 10, 2025, the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration issued guidance (Training and Employment Guidance Letter 10-23, Change 2) requiring that all participants in programs under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act have authorization to work in the United States. For individuals whose work authorization is temporary, grantees “must verify their continued work authorization at a reasonable interval determined by when their temporary authorization is expected to expire, but no less than once every three months.”
Affected programs are directed to align their policies, procedures, and requirements with the guidance. The programs include Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I Adult, Dislocated Worker, Youth programs (including statewide employment and training services funded by the Governor reserve); WIOA National Dislocated Worker Grants; Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service; Reentry Employment Opportunities and other programs authorized under Section 169 of WIOA; YouthBuild; Section 167 Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Program, also commonly referred to as the National Farmworker Jobs Program; and the Senior Community Service Employment Program. The guidance also establishes that all such participant-level services are considered “federal public benefits” under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA).
The guidance notes that individuals in certain employment-based nonimmigrant categories, such as
H-2A, H-2B, and CW-1 workers, are ineligible to receive participant-level services in WIOA and related programs as they are not included in WIOA Section 188’s category of “other immigrants authorized to work in the United States” or in PRWORA’s definition of “qualified alien.”
