EAD (WorkPermit)

Nov 20 – PD date

Dec 26 – biometrics

Feb 8 – SR1 through attorney - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) records show your case is in line to be reviewed by an officer. We ask that you allow additional time due to a current delay in the review of these applications and are processed in the order they are received

Mar 5 – SR2 through attorney - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) records show your case is in line to be reviewed by an officer. A little extra time will be required before your form is processed.

April 3 – ombudsman request - While we understand your concerns, our review indicates that your case is within normal processing times as posted on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website at https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/. Because your case is currently within normal processing times, our office will be closing this matter.

April 18 – PD has been reached now – recontact ombudsman to reopen case (no response)

April 20 – SR3(myself) - Your case is currently under review by an officer. You should receive a decision, correspondence or notice of other action within 60 days of the date of this letter.

April 27 – reach out to congressman

April 30 – congressman response

May 4 – congressman inquiry to uscis for expedite

May 8 – case approved

May 11 – card delivered

May 15 – card in hand (happy day, although only 1 year - yikes hope the renewal process is not this bad!!)

Start job next Tuesday – Very thankful company waited for me 11 weeks past the scheduled start date.

I also spoke with numerous L1/L2 officers on the phone throughout the time period and wasted time going to an infopass appointment and while some immigration officers were nice and some were not so nice but ultimately, they didn’t give any new information. I think the only productive thing you can do although (your experience will vary) is to contact ombudsman/congressman once your service date has passed regular processing time on the official USCIS website and see if they can help with expedite.

My spouse ended up getting her EAD approved one week after mine with no service requests, no contact with ombudsman/congressman, and just waited, although she was able to work throughout this time so not sure if any of my actions SR/contact ombudsman/congressman makes a big difference

Negative things/feelings about the experience (4.5 months no work)

Lack of $$ - financial resources, down to <5K in bank account with rent/bills due, not being able to provide for the family as a man , missing one of my closest family friends wedding (someone that I grew up with), self loathing, constant fighting with spouse due to no work (my own depression), lack of $$$, resentment that spouse and other people could go to work and socialize, anxiety and depression, loneliness , resentment that others got EAD faster than I did despite my PD being earlier, hating society, blaming USCIS for not moving faster, life is not fair mentality, loss of self-worth, having other people asking me what I am doing with all this free time thinking this is like a vacation for me despite it being the worse time ever for me, wasting lots of time, guilt over wasting time and not having a more productive use of this time knowing I would never have this much free time but not knowing what to do with it, people and spouse thinking I just sit around all day and do nothing, fear of losing my job offer etc, loss of self confidence in myself ,the feeling of not knowing when the card will arrive prevents you from structuring your life/time in more meaningful/productive ways (i.e. if I had known my card would arrive in 5.5 months versus 90 days – I would have made lots of different choices to how to prioritize my time, but when you are going through the process, you never know when the day will come so your life is really in Limbo),

Positive things about the experience (4.5 months no work) – lots of self reflection, read books and learned a lot, once a week badminton class, once a week hockey meetup group, networking events, new Netflix/hulu shows, learned how to cook, wrote a new song (college passion of mine), went on a snowboarding overnight trip, did taxes, built a few new friendships in new city, found a cool board games meetup group, went on a few hikes, got my wisdom teeth out, created a new website, got my teeth cleaned, anything to keep myself busy

Best of Luck everyone. Just wanted to say that this board helped me through a lot and I would not have known to contact ombudsman/congressman without this board so wanted to add my input/experiences no matter how helpful/non helpful things are. My lawyer had told me that there was nothing that I could do to expedite process, and would have thought the same without this board.

The biggest takeaway I think is to not stay at home. This will make you more anxious and worry. It is the disconnect from society that I feel causes the biggest depression/loneliness. Do something, even if it is go to barnes and nobles to read books, play badminton/sports, go to gym. Put yourself in a position where you are exposed to other people even if there is no meaningful interaction/socialization.

  Just the process of seeing people around you and people watching is better than staying at home in your pajamas all day and doing nothing. Overall I feel the most productive use of your time if you have nothing better to do is to go to library/Barnes and Nobles and read books. Although this has been a negative experience, I feel I still grew a lot in these past few months and advise you to spend the time towards self-improvement/growth - I learned a lot through reading books/listen to self improvement podcasts in these past few months and have identified new philosophies/ideas because of it.

Best of Luck everyone!