Stateless Person in the U.S.

J

Jeriley

New Member
I have been in the U.S., continuously, since July 12, 1985. Long story short, married a US citizen, separated, divorced, got my HS diploma, applied for asylum, obtained college education, graduated with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1996, became a homeowner, was ordered deported in Nov. 1998, spent a few years in jail, from Sept. 1999 to Aug. 2002, losing all that I had built up over the preceding years, have been released from detention under an Order of Supervision, my status to this day. I have been renewing my Employment Authorization Document (EAD) every year since I first applied for Asylum in 1990: this is the first time my application for renewal has languished way past its normal processing time, with no end in sight, so I am contemplating suing USCIS in District Court about it.

My EAD is now 86 days past its normal processing time, which began on July 6, 2017; it expired on September 28. I have lost the better one of my two part-time jobs because of it and am being bugged about it constantly by my other employer. I am barely surviving and under constant mental agony about it. My degree in Electrical Engineering has not served me well: I am now working as a PT custodian at my alma mater, living below the poverty line! My other job, from which I've been suspended, was as a substitute teacher in the K-12 schools. I have paid USCIS $410 of my hard-earned income for this "service" and they are not giving me any reason for the holdup, for the first time in 28 years! My local field office won't issue me an interim EAD, either.

Does anyone know if this is not an isolated incident for my case and a more common occurrence since the Trump administration has taken over?

I am now 63 years old, without family or friends, and about ready to retire. Before Obama left office, I was deemed to be such a low-priority case that I did not have to report to ICE anymore. Since Trump took over, I have had to report monthly to a government contractor called BI Inc, in 3 different ways, under an Intensive Supervision Program (ISAP). I have always been above board with the authorities and continue to believe I deserve asylum in this country. However, my legal remedies have been exhausted. Will I need to continue renewing my EAD, yearly, during my retirement years in order to collect social security? My EAD is my only official identity document.
 
I don't think there is anything you can do about that EAD. You should have applied 6 months before it expired.
 
newacct's response is not at all helpful. Up until the time I applied for the renewal, the processing time had been 90 days; it got up to 180 days since.
It has now been 249 days, more than 8 months! Furthermore, my problem is much deeper than EAD processing times and none of it has been addressed.
​
I finally got a Request For Evidence letter from NBC, last week, asking me for the document I sent them the first time, in July, last year: my Order of Supervision. Back then, I had explained
to them, in an accompanying letter, my new reporting situation, which should be available electronically to anyone in Homeland Security charged with doing background checks on me, such as they are. I have since been relieved of the need to report to the ERO and have received from them a Letter of Compliance with my Order of Supervision. I will send NBC a copy of that letter, along with a letter asking for the audience of the Officer in charge (Is there such a person?) of adjudication of my EAD renewal application:​
  1. To what do they attribute this long delay in processing?​
  2. Why not issue me an EAD with no expiration date, after all these years of unnecessary hassle? The only reason my application would be rejected is when I am held in custody and have no need for it. Since I am legally at-large in the US, how else am I supposed to support myself? I have never committed any crime in any country, and my ICE officer would be the first person to know if that ever changed, in which case I would be placed in custody and would not be able to work anyway. So where is the need in adjudicating, and putting an expiration date on, an EAD for someone who is allowed to be at-large in the US and who has never had any other sources of income?​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top