Practice Alert: Delayed Production of Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) and Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) Cards

In recent weeks, my organization, American Immigration Lawyers Association, has received reports from its attorney members of delays in the issuance of Employment Authorization Documents and Green Cards for  employment-based, family-based, and asylum-based immigration applications.

On July 9, the Washington Post reported that USCIS has shut down printing of documents evidencing legal status and work authorization for immigrants and nonimmigrants, including green cards and employment authorization documents (EAD), in Corbin, KY, weeks ago, and USCIS has scaled back printing at the second facility in Lee's Summit, MO, resulting in massive delays. USCIS blames "financial concerns," for their failure to renew the contract with the printing company despite never alerting Congress. According to a USCIS, approximately 50,000 green cards and 75,000 other employment authorization documents promised to immigrants and nonimmigrants haven't been printed.

One option to this is to file a lawsuit to compel USCIS to issue the  EAD after USCIS failed to issue the EAD within a reasonable time following the agency's approval of the person’s  application for employment authorization.

We hope that this is a temporary issue and will be resolved soon.

We will keep you posted of any developments as they occur.

For further information or questions you may have please do not hesitate to contact The Law Offices of Michael H. Markovitch.