USCIS Increases Employment Authorization Validity Time for Asylum Applicants

Effective October 5, 2016, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it will increase the validity periods of Employment Authorization Documents for Asylum applicants.  This will apply to currently pending employment authorization requests by asylum applicants, as well as those who file in the future.  Instead of the previous one-year validity, the documents for Asylum applicants will now be valid for two years.  This change will be applied to all asylum cases including those who filed for asylum while not in removal proceedings, as well as those who filed for asylum while in removal proceedings.

For Asylum applicants, the initial employment authorization request is free, but applicants have to pay filing fees for any renewal requests.   This will reduce costs for Asylum applicants as the current renewal filing fee is $380, and the Department of Homeland Security takes years to adjudicate Asylum applications.   USCIS’s announcement can be found at the link below:

https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-increases-validity-work-permits-two-years-asylum-applicants