Asylum Seekers May Face Longer Wait on Work Permit Decisions (1)

Asylum seekers would face longer waits for work permits under a proposal to eliminate a rule that their permit applications must be decided within 30 days.

The proposed rule, released Sept. 6, is intended to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “has sufficient time to receive, screen, and process applications for an initial grant of employment authorization based on a pending asylum application,” the agency said. “This change will also reduce opportunities for fraud and protect the security-related processes” associated with each work permit application, it said.

The USCIS received 261,782 initial work ...