There are clear delays on work permit applications and asylum-seekers have noticed. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is mandated to begin the processing of asylum-seekers’ work permits within thirty days of receiving them, however, these individuals are now waiting months for the processing of their forms due to an overwhelming backlog. People are waiting months for the approval of their work permit requests as a result of this accumulation of requests. This proves to be a difficult situation as there are over 77,000 pending work permits that have been sent in over the past few months and still currently awaiting approval. The USCIS is focusing their attention to the requests per the court order, yet other requests for approval are remained untouched and unprocessed.
It is possible that this backlog will only multiply over time and the agency will get even more overwhelmed with delays. At one point, the Trump administration attempted to terminate the thirty-day requirement, but it was reinstated as the processing requirement for all asylum-seekers. Still, the backlog is evident, and people are still waiting months for their work permit approval. We are remaining hopeful that there will be more resources allocated to this issue to find a stable solution for the processing of all these applications of work permits.
