HOW TO EXPEDITE EAD APPLICATION
Author: New York Immigration attorney Alena Shautsova
Generally, an employment authorization should be issued within 90 days of submission of the complete application package. An applicant with pending asylum application, should receive an EAD card within 30 days of filing I-765 form. An applicant for adjustment of status, usually receives an EAD within 45 days.
However, often, applicants experience delays. Delays maybe caused by the processing delays by USCIS, or by the applicant when he/she failed to submit all necessary evidence.
If an EAD application has been pending for more than 75 days, an applicant should call USCIS and inquire about the status of the case, and also make an info pass appointment and go to a local USCIS office.
It should be noted that USCIS does not issue Interim EADs anymore, and somebody without a valid employment authorization cannot accept/continue his/her employment. A person may file for a renewal of the EAD as soon as 120 days before its expiration.
The EAD clock will be reset if an applicant failed to attach initial evidence, and will be stopped if an applicant failed to attach evidence requested by USCIS. For example, if an applicant failed to attach initial evidence, and USCIS informed the applicant about it on the 30th day of the EAD application being pending, the clock will be reset to 0 once the evidence is received.
The instructions to the EAD application form and the form itself are available at http://www.uscis.gov/i-765.