The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a first-of-its-kind national campaign for noncitizens who are work-eligible but who have yet to apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). Hundreds of thousands of email and text notifications have been sent by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, with additional notifications in Ukrainian and Russian planned in the coming days. These notifications are the start of a government-wide effort to integrate newly arrived noncitizens into the American workforce. DHS will continue these efforts with state and local officials, in coordination with federal partners, to address, in a humane and orderly manner, the needs of noncitizens who have arrived in communities across the country. USCIS will also begin distributing flyers to local NGOs, stakeholders, and migrants to explain the EAD process and provide them with a QR code for instant access to the application.
To date, DHS has reached out to individuals who have either received parole through the new Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) parole processes, the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) parole process, after having received a CBP One App appointment and presenting at a Port of Entry, or have a pending Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, with USCIS, to remind them of their eligibility to apply for a work permit.
Noncitizens are likely eligible to immediately apply for an EAD to legally work in the United States if:
- They were recently paroled into the United States through the CHNV parole processes, U4U, or after receiving a CBP One App appointment and presenting at a Port of Entry; or
- They have applied for asylum by filing Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, and the application has been pending with USCIS for at least 150 days.
Asylum applicants may apply for an EAD when their asylum application has been pending for 150 days and their application may not be approved until their asylum application has been pending for 180 days. This 180-day waiting period for asylum-seekers is a statutory requirement that only Congress can change.
USCIS also implemented a temporary final rule in May 2022 that automatically extends EADs for certain renewal applicants for 540 days to address increased processing times for renewals. Most noncitizens with a pending asylum application whose EAD expired in the last six months have been granted an automatic 540-day validity period.
Eligible noncitizens who have not already started the EAD application process can begin by going to https://myaccount.uscis.gov/users/sign_up to create a USCIS account online. After creating an account, the next step is to file a Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization online. USCIS will mail the EAD to the address provided in the EAD application if the Form I-765 application is approved. Application case status can be checked online at https://egov.uscis.gov. Information is also available about how to file an EAD application on paper by mail.
For noncitizens with a pending Form I-589, there is no fee to file your Form I-765. For those noncitizens paroled into the U.S., there is a $410 filing fee to apply for an EAD. To learn more about eligibility for a waiver of this filing fee, visit https://www.uscis.gov/forms/filing-fees/additional-information-on-filing-a-fee-waiver. If requesting a fee waiver, you cannot submit any petition or application online, and instead will need to file paper versions of the fee waiver request and the form for which you are requesting a fee waiver.
In addition to today’s announcement, Congress appropriated $800 million to support border and interior cities for Fiscal Year 2023. DHS will allocate the full amount by the end of the Fiscal Year, providing critical support to communities and service providers receiving noncitizens. The Administration requested $600 million additional for the Shelter and Services Program in the Supplemental, and we call on Congress to fulfil that request. During the Biden-Harris Administration, DHS has provided more than $1 billion to support communities through the Emergency Food and Shelter Program and Shelter and Services Program.
