The USCIS has previously announced the availability of expedited processing for qualifying healthcare and childcare workers with a pending Employment Authorization Document (EAD) renewal application, whose EAD is expiring within 30 days or has already expired. This flexibility now includes initial EAD applications that have been pending for over 90 days for healthcare and childcare workers.

Who are Qualified?

• Qualified healthcare workers enumerated under title ‘HEALTHCARE / PUBLIC HEALTH,’ pages 7 to 9 of the Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response.
• Qualified childcare workers who attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions or who perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play. This excludes Preschool Teachers except for special education and Teaching Assistants for Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, except for special Education. This is based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s  Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code 39-9011.

How to Request for Expedited EAD Processing for Healthcare and Childcare Workers?

• Make sure you are a qualified healthcare or childcare worker.
• Call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833) to request expedited processing of your EAD application based on your circumstance as a healthcare worker or a childcare worker with an EAD application that meets the basis of your qualification.
• For immigration benefit requests pending with USCIS offices located outside the United States, you may request expedited processing by submitting a written request, along with any supporting documentation, directly to the USCIS office with the benefit request.
• If you are requesting expedited EAD processing and you have a pending or approved case based on T or U nonimmigrant status, follow the case inquiry process outlined at the USCIS guidance on Victims of Human Trafficking and Other Crimes.
• If you are requesting expedited EAD processing and you have a pending or approved VAWA I-360 or I-485, follow the case inquires processes at USCIS guidance on Abused Spouses, Children and Parents.

Important Considerations:

• The USCIS considers all expedite requests on a case-by-case basis.
• The USCIS has the sole discretion to decide whether to accommodate a request.
• The USCIS weighs the urgency and merit of each expedite request. Requests may be granted under such situations as severe financial loss to a company or person, emergencies and urgent humanitarian reasons, U.S. government interests, clear USCIS error, and the like.
• Be prepared to provide evidence of your profession or current or immediate prospective employment as a healthcare worker or a childcare worker (such as an Employment Verification Letter, recent earnings statement, or pay stubs) and current valid immigration status.
• If the evidence provided is not sufficient, the USCIS may not accommodate your request for expedited processing of your Form I-765.
• Be ready to provide your receipt number since the USCIS Contact Center will not be able to refer the expedite request to the appropriate office without a receipt number.
• A decision on an expedite request is not an approval or a denial of the underlying benefit request. The expedite decision simply informs the requestor whether USCIS will take the benefit request out of date order and issue a decision faster than the normal processing time.

Attorney Jing Feng is a decorated immigration lawyer who has been working in immigration for years. She has notable experience in this domain, and has successfully gained U.S. residency for thousands of her clients. For more consultation on visa preparation, please contact Jing Feng Law Group, PLLC at jfeng@fengvisa.com or 646-288- 7129. We look forward to hearing from you!