Work permits or employment authorization documents are issued by the USCIS to foreign nationals to show that they are legally authorized to work in the country and to obtain this document, Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, must be filed. Permanent residents and US citizens need not obtain employment authorization documents to work in the United States and work permits must be obtained by the other categories of temporary visitors who are not permitted work but authorized to stay in the country. Such foreign nationals whose visas permit them to stay in the country but not to work, may apply for work permits by filing Form I-765. Asylees, fiance visa holders, TPS beneficiaries, T-1 and U-1 Non-immigrants, dependents of E1, J-1, L-1 visa holders, people who have applied for adjustment of status and certain other categories of non-immigrants can apply for employment authorization documents.
Form I-765 is available on the USCIS website and this form must be submitted along with the required form filing fee and in certain cases, Form I-765 form filing fee may not be required. Before filing this form, you need to make sure that you are eligible to work in the country. Form I-765 is quite simple and you just need to enter few details about yourself, such as your name, address, alien registration number and social security number. Similarly, you need to enter the date on which you entered into the United States, the type of visa with which you got into the country and your current immigration status.
There are 17 questions in this form and the first 15 questions are self explanatory. However, you need to go through the form instructions page to find your eligibility category and you need to enter the letter and the number of your particular eligibility category below the 16th question. You will have to enter your degree, your employer’s name and identification number that you find in E-verify, below the 17th question. Finally, you need to affix your signature and enter your contact number and see to that you enter the right telephone number as the USCIS officers might contact you. If your petition is prepared by your friend or someone else, the person who filled the form must enter his name and address and affix his signature.
You may file the same form to renew or replace your work permit. USCIS permits the foreign nationals to renew their expired employment authorization documents and to obtain new documents. Hence, if you seek to work in the country for some more days after the expiration of your current work permit, you may apply for renewal and obtain a new document. Generally, employment authorization documents valid for a year are issued by the USCIS and people who hold these one year work permits may apply for renewal around 4 months prior to the date of expiration their current work permits and obtain new documents. If your work permit is missing, you may file Form I-765 to get your employment authorization document replaced.
