EAD (WorkPermit)

Hi,

I want to share now my complete timeline and some advises:

AOS c09 category, NBC, No RFE

PD: 07/05/2018
Fingerprints completed: 08/09/2018
I-485 Ready to be Scheduled of an Interview: 11/30/2018 (last update on line)

During this time I submitted 2 SR that they were never answered, and 2 expedite request that they were "completed' the next day without asking for any evidence. As I was told by I Tier 2, this meant that they were cancelled.

During this time, I contacted:

- Congressman (2 times, end of December 2018 and early January 2019): no response.

- Senator: contacted him end of Dec. 2018, answered by middle Jan 2018 by mail with USCIS response of "case pending review by an officer".

- Tier 2 officers by phone (could reach them 4 times): they were quite helpful and could find out from them that my background check for I-765 was not completed until the first week of Jan 2019 (!), and that was assigned to an officer on 01/14/2019.

- Ombudsman: submitted form on 01/31/2018, not answer until now.

- Infopass today 02/04/2019, not in my field office but in another state because in mine is permanently booked. Excellent experience with the IO, who was very surprised that I hadn't receive my EAD yet. He also said that I should have gone before to Infopass considering the big delay of my EAD, because they can send a mail to NBC to speed it, and that calling USCIS customer service is totally unuseful. Anyway, when he finally checked my I-765 status, he could confirm that it was approved on 02/01/2019, that is last Friday. It took exactly 18 days after my case was "assigned to an officer".

- Finally, just a few hours ago I found in my mailbox 2 notices of action, 1 of my EAD approval and the other one of my AP approval. But nothing updated on line yet.

CONCLUSION:

- I am sure that this big delays of the EAD are due to the new USCIS policy of double background check, one for I-485 and a second one for I-765. EAD cannnot be granted until the background check is completed, and until that happens nothing can be done (service requests, expedite requests, senator, congressman...). In some cases backgrounds are fast and the EAD can be issued in the regular processing time (4-6 months), but I guess there are people that for different reasons require longer background checks.

- In these last cases, I strongly recommend to schedule an Infopass appointment in the own state or other. Not only you get there the most accurate informatio about your case, but I have found that the IO can also reach NBC and try to speed it.

Thank you very much! This forum has been extraordinary helpful for me, not only receiving first-hand information but also making me feel that I was not alone in this painful road. I wish y'all many many luck, and a lot of encouragement, especially to that ones who are already far out of normal processing time like I have been. Never, never give up!