congrats Deb! Were you employed at the time of expedite? and is this employment based application?

thanks Sonal! I had quit my job at the time of expedite, and had a pending job offer. No, this is a family based application, my spouse is a US citizen.

Thanks Deb for the info! All the best for your new job.

congratulations! where are you based? I’m based in Dallas and am waiting for my bio appt for I-765. my PD is June 15; applications are being processed in NBC. marriage based.

what proof did you provide when you reached out to your local congressman?

I’m based in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Applicaton processing was at NBC, local field office Philadelphia. The supporting document I provided was my job offer.

I’m on H1b right now. I have a job offer from a different company. although this new company is willing to do an H1b transfer, I’m thinking whether I can use this offer to expedite my ead. any thoughts on that?

@RN I don’t have much idea about H1B (although I use another app for tech folks called TeamBlind where discuss people H1B scenarios). But as long as you have an offer with a specific start date, you could use it for your expedite request.

Gotcha. thank you @Deb Ghosh.

Hi, did you include the job offer with the expedite request? I have a postdoctoral research job lined up. Have filled out different forms but the University wants to see EAD before sending the Job offer. I am not sure what to write in the expedite request..

Hi Su, yes I included the job offer with the expedite request. On reddit I did see some people mention that they were never asked for supporting docs, but there’s a risk if they do ask for supporting docs. Fortunately, in my case the employer was very flexible. if possible, you could request the University to provide a job offer contingent on you getting the EAD.

@Su you can request expedite based on your pending job offer. Expediting itself does not require any documentation. If they ask you documents, you can get an "intent to hire" from University based on EAD approval. Deb had approached congressmen and for that he uploaded documents. Although, just a heads up, I have a pending expedite request since July 19th. So if your university is ok filing academic H1B, go for it

@Deb Ghosh please is your wife the sponsor or you have a co-sponsor?

congratulations 🍾 I’m confused. How did the your congressman help in terms of timeline?

@TL my wife is the sponsor.

thank you Deb

@Mar A thanks! I guess the congressman’s help ensured I got the EAD before my start date. Timeline being shorter than current estimates.

How long did it take the congressman to accomplish this?

It says it usually takes 30 days for a response when you expedite via Congress. I wanted to know how long yours took to get results

congrats Deb. could you please tell me how to contact the local congressman and what action did you take to expedite? thanks 😊

How long does it take for you to receive your EAD card after contacting the congressman? Thanks!

For contacting your local congressman, you could first search for your congressman based on your zip code. Then they should have a website with contact information (email/form/call). In my case it took a week from the time I sent them an email with supporting documents to actually getting the approval.

hi deb, after congressman office sent request to uscis how long did it take for uscis to reply? thanks

hi Nick, less than 1 week

thanks

Hi Deb, I’m in a similar situation, requested expedited EAD at the NBC about 8 days ago. Congressman submitted a congressional inquiry a couple of days ago and they even followed up again today by phone. However, I-765 case status hasn’t changed and is still showing as “Expedite Request Received”. Was it the same for you until you got the green light - no change of case status? I see your I-765 was approved Aug 16. What date did your congressman’s office submit their inquiry? Oh, and were they democrats or republicans? (not sure whether that changes anything, but who knows with USCIS…)

Deb have you received your ssn if yes how long did it take

@clay I just received my SSN 3 days back. around 1 month after my EAD was approved.

@Deb thanks for your suggestions. I reached out to my local congressman and it helped. I got my biometric scheduled. I plan to do an early walk in tomorrow and hopefully it will work out. I plan to submit an expedite request after the biometric. My local congressman asked to submit an expedite package explaining the situation I’m in and why I want to expedite. did you go through this? what did you say re why you wanted to expedite?

@RN glad it helped to move things around. yes, in my case I just explained how long it had been and that I’ve a pending job offer. I also provided the offer letter

Deb could you please confirm if it came as a first class mail pancake or priority mail. I see two mails coming in my informed delivery and I’m not expecting any package delivery. I trying to decipher if one could be my social

I only see the tracking number no pic of mail, did it come in a regular sized envelope

regular sized envelope.

so you probably think it’s a first class mail right ?

yes, first class mail

fingers crossed then looks like I will be getting my ssn earlier than expected 💃🏿🎉🎉 thanks for your time Deb 😘😘

no problem. All the best!

thank you love, last question 🙈 did it come from your local SSA or a different state?

not sure, should come from local SSA. although on the mail it says SSA Baltimore, MD ; which might be their HQ, so the default for all mails perhaps.

got it ! thanks a lot ☺️🙏🏿

@deb got word that uscis approved my EAD and travel document. thank you for sharing your story; it helped me tremendously. I don’t know you but sending goood vibes your way. cheers my desi friend.

that’s great, congratulations @RN! very happy for you and really glad that the expedite worked. All the best for your work and rest of the application!