Any person covered by DACA who received a work permit that is more than 2 years old and that was issued by the Federal Government after February 16, 2015 has until July 30, 2015 to return the document to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
That document was issued erroneously and is no longer valid. If you do not return it, you may affect their immigration status and work authorization.
In April, I reported that USCIS issued approximately 100,000 work permits valid for more than 2 years to individuals who re-enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Of these 100,000 work permits, approximately 2,100 were issued after Federal Judge Andrew Hanen temporarily blocked the expansion of DACA and the implementation of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program.
The error occurred because the Federal Government began implementing President Obama's executive action announced in November 2014 that allowed for the extension of the DACA period to 3 years for initial enrollments and re-enrollments to the program.
But when Federal Judge Andrew Hanen halted the implementation of the DACA expansion, work permits with more than 2 years of validity issued after February 16, 2015 had to be invalidated. Ehe federal litigation is still pending. Until it is resolved, the changes to DACA mandated by the President's executive action cannot go into effect.
To correct the error, USCIS sent new 2-year work permits to replace those issued with the incorrectly extended term.
USCIS sent letters explaining the error, asking that work permits and approval letters for DACA applications showing a validity period of more than 2 years be returned.
If for some reason you do not have these documents in your possession because they were lost, stolen or destroyed, you will need to send a signed letter to the USCIS stating under penalty of perjury why you cannot return your work permit or approval letter.
For more information, please call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283 and select option number 8 for assistance.
