Many of you who are on the H1-B visa might know about the abysmal situation around EAD approvals. While my wife is patiently waiting for her EAD, I have analyzed the USCIS approval patterns in past few days and went into a rabbit hole of various online forums on this topic to understand what the heck has been going on lately. Have come to the following conclusions: 1. On average, over the course of many months, USCIS does approve cases based on the order they were received. 2. However, if you zoom in a little bit you will see that USCIS works on cases from many different time frames simultaneously. For example, as of right now, they have processed about 50% EAD applications that were sent in the month of February, meanwhile about 40% applications from January, 25% applications from December ‘21 and 15% applications from November ‘21 are still waiting. 3. From online forums, I gathered there can be many different reasons for this. There might be some special groups like people working in medical field or serving in military whose applications are given priority. But the most important factor might be that USCIS is trying to reduce the average processing time. By processing a mix of new and old applications, they reduce the average. 4. USCIS aims to process about 80% of the cases 4 to 6 months after they were filed. 5. I noticed that for cases older than 6 or 7 months, the absolute number of approvals are considerably low and many of them remain open for a long period of time after that. 6. If your application is past this point and still not approved, then you are part of the unlucky camp. Your case is no longer important enough for USCIS to move the needle on the dashboard, so they will deprioritize it to make room for newer cases. It will get processed eventually, but is likely going to take a long time. What can we do: 1. Expedite Request: These are rarely approved and only when there is a real emergency or you work in a strategically important field. 2. Congressperson/Senator inquiry: You can write letter to your representative. These work sometimes. 3. Litigation: By far the most effective weapon for EAD applications. There are many success stories of it working. The reason is that compared to adjudicating the application, fighting a lawsuit is way more expensive and time consuming for USCIS. So when people sue USCIS, they go ahead and process their application before the case goes to a judge. Now, this isn’t always true. In some cases USCIS will fight and win, but for EAD delays it usually works out in favor of plaintiffs. Mass litigation is even more effective because it is taken more seriously by the court as well as the attorney you are working with and costs less for every individual. I have gathered this data from hilites.today, tracking several hundred cases personally, reading threads on Reddit, Facebook and other online forums. If anyone wants to join forces, DM me. We will form a WhatsApp group and start talking to a lawyer about litigation. #Immigration #ead #h4ead #uscis #h1b #h1 #h4eadprocessingtime #workvisa
This does not sound like a good idea and I believe it will be cost you an incredible amount of money. I also am not sold on your theory. Be careful
Isn’t your case eligible for auto extension? I thought I saw something about ead cases being auto extended for 180 or 240days.
My wife doesn’t have EAD. This would be her first
I plan to sue if my EAD takes longer than 6 months. The moment I qualify for AC21 I expect to have EAD and if its not there then I'm put in a risky position. The ~$5000 or so it costs to bring a lawsuit is well worth the peace of mind.
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15 years age difference, need advice! 🙏
Didn’t they have budget shortfalls and furloughed like 70% of their workforce last year? I think they are short staffed these days
Yep, they are short staffed. I am not arguing against it. But nevertheless, people need their EAD specially if they have waited for enough time. USCIS can and should proceed cases that are older that say 5-6 months.