Asylum seekers in the United States will no longer have to wait 12 months to apply for their work permit after submitting their application. They can now apply for this document 6 months after submitting their asylum application.
This decision was made on February 7, 2022 by a judge in Washington DC who ordered Joe Biden’s administration to restore the waiting period to 180 days (6 months).
The news was posted on the Facebook account of migration lawyer Frandley Denis Julien.
Former President Donald Trump had decided to set the waiting period at 12 months. A decision that had provoked the anger of immigrant rights advocates who had filed a lawsuit against the government to restore the waiting period to 6 months, a practice that had been in place for a very long time that Donald Trump had decided to change to discourage immigrants to make asylum applications in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security also announced other changes to the U.S. immigration system.
From now on, work cards will be issued for a period of 24 months for certain categories of immigrants. “Beginning today, USCIS will generally grant new and renewed EADs, valid for two years, to applicants in the following categories: Admitted as a Refugee (a)(3); Grant of Asylum (a)(5); Withholding of Deportation or Removal (a)(10); and Self-Applicant VAWA (c)(31),” the immigration service said in a statement sent to ZoomHaitiNews.
For immigrants on parole, employment authorization cards will be issued during the period of their eligibility. Any expiration or revocation of the parole (commonly called Advance parole in English) will also result in the revocation of the work card. Immigrants considered by this decision are those who have been “paroled into the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit (c)(11); and Deferred Action Granted (non-DACA) (c)(14),” DHS said, which hopes that “increasing the maximum validity period of EADs for these categories will help reduce processing backlogs by decreasing the frequency and number of times these applicants need to renew their EADs and will help prevent gaps in employment authorization and documentation.”
Prior to the midterm elections, additional provisions will also be made with respect to immigrants in the United States illegally. A new extension or redesignation of Temporary Protected Status is expected to be passed for migrants from TPS-designated countries including Haiti.
Members of Congress are already in talks with the administration of Joe Biden in this sense, said Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke of the ninth district of New York in an exclusive interview with ZoomHaitiNews.