Certain Asylum Applicants Seeking Employment Authorization Can Now File Form I-765 Online

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on January 23 announced that certain asylum applicants can now file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, online. This is an important step in USCIS’ efforts to employ technical solutions to streamline and improve processing efficiency and reduce wait times.

Effective immediately, applicants for employment authorization under category (c)(8), Pending Asylum and Withholding of Removal Applicants and Applicants for Pending Asylum under the ABC Settlement Agreement, may file Form I-765 online.

To apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) based on your pending asylum application under the (c)(8) eligibility category, you may file Form I-765 150 days after you file your asylum application.

USCIS is currently experiencing delays in issuing receipts for Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for

Withholding of Removal. Due to these delays, you may not receive a receipt notice in a timely manner after you properly file your Form I-589. For purposes of EAD eligibility based on a pending asylum application, your filing date will be the date that we received your properly filed Form I-589.

To file Form I-765 online, you must first visit my.uscis.gov and create a USCIS online account. There is no cost to create an account. A USCIS account offers a variety of features, including the ability to communicate with USCIS about your application, through a secure inbox. If you have previously filed a USCIS form online, you may use an existing USCIS online account.

Only certain categories of applicants may file Form I-765 online. If you submit Form I-765 online, but you are not filing under an eligible employment authorization category, USCIS may deny your application without refunding the fee.

Online filing allows applicants to submit forms electronically, check the status of their case online, and receive online notices from USCIS. We will continue to expand online filing of Form I-765 to additional categories to make the process of applying for immigration benefits more efficient, secure, and convenient for more applicants and to increase our operational efficiencies.l

Stay Home/ continued from page 14 employment-based immigrant visas while increasing the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from seven to 15 percent of total available visas per year.

As a candidate, Biden pledged to double the number of immigration judges to hasten the processing of those cases. Although it has expanded, the administration has not doubled its numbers as promised. There were approximately 517 immigration judges in 2020, the year before Biden was elected president; there have been 634, a 23% rise since that time.

The decision to expand Title 42 is a sordid move from the Biden administration, especially since they criticized the previous administration, who undoubtedly used a racist immigration agenda masked as a public health issue to deny asylum to those that need it most.l