Sixteen members of Congress sent a letter to Ur Jaddou, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with a copy to David Neal, Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, expressing their concerns with the process for submitting Employment Authorization Document (EAD) applications for asylees and humanitarian parolees.
The letter notes barriers that may prevent EAD-eligible individuals from completing their forms and receiving work authorization. Most notably, the letter says that “the cost of filing a Form I-765 (an application for employment authorization) ranges from $470 to $520 starting April 1, 2024 for parole-based EAD submissions. Although parolees can apply for a fee waiver with Form I-912, there is no option to file it online, despite the fact that form I-765 can be completed online and a discount is offered for doing so. Additionally, both the Form I-765 and the Form I-912 are only available in English.” Furthermore, the letter states, the EAD application “is a lengthy, multi-step process, which may require assistance from an attorney or translator to complete.”
The letter asks several questions, and the signers offer to work with the Biden administration “to resolve agency-level barriers for EAD applicants in order to shorten processing and adjudication times.”
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