Legal Question in Immigration Law in California
A friend of mine was recently informed that those who are under process to receive U.S. Residency may not work while the process is on-going, and that failure to comply by that will result in the following: the person filing for residency will be deported out of the U.S. and forbidden reentry for 20 years and that if the person is married, the marital partner will also be punished even if the marital partner is a U.S. citizen. I seek to know if this is at all true? Or if my friend was illinformed?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Dear Inquirer:
Your friend has been misinformed. Once an application for adjustment of status to permanent resident is properly filed, the applicant should also obtain a work authorization document from the USCIS within 90 days. Even assuming the person failed to submit an application for the work permit at the time of filing the application for adjustment of status, working without permission is not an obstacle to adjusting status if the applicant is filing as the spouse of a US Citizen, which is the situation your question implies.
I recommend that you email [email protected] or visit www.hanlonlawgroup.com if you would like more information.
Your question isn't completely clear, but it sounds like your friend has married a US citizen and the US Citizen filed the necessary petition and application to adjust status for the friend to become a legal permanent resident. The application fee for adjustment of status includes a fee for employment authorization document, but that form I-765 should have been filed as well. Typically, it takes about 90 days to be processed to receive the EAD card. If the friend who is married to a US citizen works without this employment authorization, it is unauthorized employment, but if for less than a certain amount of time, and the marriage is found to be a valid one, it is not a problem for the person to adjust status to obtain legal permanent residency. If you would like more information, feel free to email [email protected] or phone 415-387-1364.
This assumes that employment is never authorized during the immigration process. In fact, employment authorization is specifically given to adjustment of status to permanent resident applicants in the U.S. pending their cases. Also some people enter on immigrant visas instead of adjusting and they sometimes have temporary work visas at the same time. These are specifically permitted by the government.
While it is possible to be denied status as a result of unauthorized employment, I wouldn't assume that at all.
Feel free to email me at [email protected], telephone me at 818 609 1953 or visit me at http://www.yardum-hunter.com to see whether this is a problem in this particular matter.
Alice M. Yardum-Hunter, Certified Specialist, Immigration & Nationality Law, State Bar of CA, Bd. of Legal Specialization
A "Super Lawyer" 2004-2009, Los Angeles Magazine
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