Employment Authorization Document Update: Expedited Processing for Healthcare Workers

An important update was announced by USCIS on December 28, 2021 to help alleviate for at least some applicants the intolerable delays in renewing their Employment Authorization Document (EAD).  If you are a healthcare worker who has a pending EAD renewal application (Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization) and your EAD expires in 30 days or less or has already expired, you can request expedited processing of your EAD application. Who is a qualifying healthcare worker? USCIS references the August 2021 Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce published by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. A copy of the memo is available here.

The list of critical healthcare workers is broad and apart from the obvious healthcare workers also includes workers required for effective clinical, command, infrastructure, support service, administrative, security, and intelligence operations across the direct patient care and full healthcare and public health spectrum.

The request for expedited processing can be made by calling the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833). The challenge is to get through to a live person and make the request. Be prepared to clearly express why you qualify as a healthcare worker and why you are eligible to request expedited processing.

If the evidence you provide is not sufficient, USCIS may not accommodate your request for expedited processing of your Form I-765. Expedited processing means only that USCIS will process the application faster – the announcement does not specify how quickly the EAD will be issued.

While this does not provide relief for the thousands of other applicants whose EAD’s have been delayed by many months, hopefully this is a sign that USCIS is finally taking steps to manage the EAD processing delays.