Rep. Vargas, Colleagues Call on USCIS to Prevent Work Permit Lapse for Immigrants
Members of Congress urge USCIS to extend the length of work permit renewals to help combat processing delays
WASHINGTON - U.S. Representative Juan Vargas (CA-52) joined his colleagues in sending a bicameral letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) urging the agency to lengthen the current automatic extension period for immigrants’ work permits (employment authorization documents or “EADs”). DHS’s issuance of such a rule is urgently needed to allow USCIS more time to process EAD renewal applications and to prevent immigrants’ work permits from lapsing at no fault of their own.
“Without a new rule, immigrants and asylum seekers who have recently applied to renew their EADs will begin to lose their work authorizations beginning on April 24, 2024, purely due to continued processing delays at USCIS. In the meantime, workers and employers face grave uncertainty,” wrote the lawmakers.
“This longer extension is critical to prevent the impending loss of employment authorization for hundreds of thousands of immigrants as a result of ongoing delays at USCIS. Already, DHS has prepared a new rule to lengthen the automatic extension period. In our view, DHS should enact this change via an interim final rule without a sunset date, or alternatively, via a temporary final rule that leaves the benefit in place for at least 3 years,” the lawmakers continued.
Read the full letter HERE.
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