USCIS Adjudicating EAD and Advance Parole Application Separately to Expedite EAD Issuance

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed that it is decoupling the adjudication of applications for EAD work authorization and the Advance Parole (AP) travel document to decrease its EAD processing backlog and to expedite EAD issuance to prevent applicants from experiencing gaps in employment. Current processing times for EAD applications have been severely delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now taking up to 10 to 13 months to be issued in some cases.

Typically, adjustment of status (AOS / green card) applicants file concurrent applications for these ancillary benefits and the USCIS would issue the EAD/AP “combo cards.” AOS applicants will now receive two separate documents: the EAD card and the advance parole travel document. Applicants who have filed for both benefits and received the EAD card should review the document carefully. If the EAD card does not have the annotation “Serves as I-512 Advance Parole,” then the AP travel document will be issued separately.