USCIS Accounts for Returns of Erroneously Issued DACA EADs
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an update on August 5, 2015, regarding returns of erroneously issued employment authorization documents (EADs) with more than two years of validity issued after February 16, 2015, to certain Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. This was after a court order was in place prohibiting the agency from conferring DACA for more than two years. After the court order in Texas v. United States, USCIS can approve deferred action requests and related employment authorization applications based on DACA only for two-year periods.
USCIS said it has accounted for over 99 percent of the approximately 2,600 identified invalid work permits requiring return. Twenty-two of the approximately 2,600 recipients failed to return their work permits or certify good cause for not doing so by the deadline of July 30, 2015. As a result, USCIS terminated DACA for those 22 people.
USCIS noted that the recall only applied to some individuals who received a card after the February 16, 2015, court order; there are approximately 108,000 individuals who have valid three-year DACA work permits and do not need to return them. USCIS said that those who were affected by the recall and returned their invalid three-year work permits should use Case Status Online to verify whether USCIS received the work permit.
Those who returned their cards but their DACA and work authorization was terminated should either call USCIS at 1-800-375-5283, select option 1 for English, then option 8; or visit their local USCIS field offices between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
See also:
- A related “quick facts” sheet
- The USCIS letter (PDF)
- USCIS’ July 27 announcement
