Hey All. My 90 Day mark for EAD is Sunday. I called the USCIS hotline just to see what they'd say or if they saw something different on my case. The woman there said "The employment authorization timeframe is between 90 and 120 days. What the heck? The USCIS website says you will get your authorization in 90 days or LESS. Has anyone ever heard of it taking this long???

The other thing is that I told the woman I made an infopass appointment for my local New Jersey office for Tuesday to get the temporary work permit and she said "giving out the temp EAD is at the discretion of the local office" i guess that means they give it out if they FEEL like it. What are the odds that I get it?! Im freaking out, I thought it was a given that i'd get it. What if I tell them I have job offers (true) or emotional stress (true).

All suggestions, stories and advice are appreciated!!

The law is that they must issue it within 90 days. However, the law says "issue" which means they have printed it, prepared it, approved it - but it can take up to 30 days for them to mail it. A lot of the centers are on cyclic mailings, every two weeks, so that can hold things up.

However, if you do not receive your EAD after 90 days (aka this coming Monday), you can make an InfoPass appointment and request a temporary EAD. Inform them that you need to start working in order to assist your spouse in supporting you - and explain that it is unfair for her to do all the work while you sit around doing nothing. Most officers are nice and will issue it. Legally, they have to - unless you are about to be slapped with an RFE. Also, keep in mind, if you received an RFE or RFI (request for initial evidence) then your 90 days is restarted - it starts on the day you submit the evidence for the RFE/RFI.

There is no law that says they must be done within 90 days. There is a federal guideline that it should take no longer than 90 days, but its not a binding rule that USCIS has to follow.

You used to be able to make an infopass appointment and get an interim EAD if your application had not been approved with 90 days, but these stopped a few years back.

If thats the case though then how come when I went to make the infopass appointment one of the appointment criteria you could check off was "EAD Application has taken longer than 90 days" ? And on the appointment letter it states "Appointment: Interim EAD"

I'm so confused.

Because that's the reason you're going to see them. Doesn't mean they are going to give you an interim EAD.