Source: Immigration Impact
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently stopped printing documents that immigrants need to prove that they are legally residing and working in the U.S. In mid-June, USCIS ended its contract with a third-party printing company and decided to print these documents in-house instead. However, USCIS has failed to print about 50,000 green cards and 75,000 work permits due to its current budgetary constraints. USCIS blames its budget issues on the COVID-19 pandemic, but USCIS “has been on a path to financial ruin for years due largely to its own fiscal mismanagement.“
If a legal permanent resident does not have their green card on them, they can be charged with a misdemeanor, cannot apply for a job, and cannot travel. These immigrants have already had their petitions and applications approved and have paid their fees in order to receive these documents. However, USCIS has only said “it cannot speculate on future projections of processing times.”
Anis Saleh, an immigration attorney in Coral Gables, FL said, “The bottom line is that applicants pay huge filing fees, and it appears that these fees have apparently been either squandered through mismanagement or diverted to enforcement-focused initiatives, to the great detriment of applicants as well as the overall efficiency of the immigration process.”