Freaking out

[midwinterrose 263]

4 hours ago, Pooley said:

Long story short, somehow I had the wrong case number and it showed my AP case was approved on the 11th of February. Turns out my husbands actual case is still pending however he just accepted a job yesterday. We had called immigration twice yesterday and they said it was approved, however, that was for the wrong case. This morning we called back and got the correct case number. What do we do? How much trouble can he get for working and how to do I speed that process up?

Have you checked your case status on the USCIS website? It will show all your cases along with their case number and their current status. Often the website is not totally up to date, but it could be helpful to see them all laid out on one page.

 

Which case was actually approved on Feb 11th, if any?

 

If AP (advance parole) was approved, it does not give him permission to work. (Though they usually approve AP and EAD together and send one card for both, so it would be a little odd if only AP were approved.

 

If EAD (employment authorization document) was approved, he has permission to work and you are fine.

 

AOS (I-485) requires an interview to be approved, so if you haven’t had an interview yet, that’s definitely not approved yet.

 

Have you tried doing a self-check on E-verify? That should tell you if he’s approved for work.

[DELETEME1234 208]

The good news: assuming you are an USC this won't negatively affect his eligibility for a green card (assuming you guys are honest about if whenever asked). 

 

The bad news: he needs to stop working (for now), if he can get a job offer on paper he can request for the EAD to be expedited by calling USCIS. 

 

Respectfully; perhaps it's an idea to wait until you guys actually have physical possession of the card to prevent misunderstandings like this in the future?

[SalishSea 16,805]

3 hours ago, arken said:

Lots of people in this forum have has their EAD expedited thru a job offer.

And as a result, the USCIS is cracking down on that practice.

[SalishSea 16,805]

3 hours ago, Pooley said:

They never asked for the I-9. They asked for his social. I'm going to ask if they can do a job offer and just send it in for it to be expedited. 

Strange that a legit US employer would skip the I-9.  

[SalishSea 16,805]

3 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

He might want to reach to HR and explain that while he's still interested, he's going to have to wait for his EAD.  

 

If no I-9 was requested, I doubt there would even be an HR department.  Legitimate US businesses do not omit that step, because of federal laws and all.

[SalishSea 16,805]

5 hours ago, Pooley said:

Long story short, somehow I had the wrong case number and it showed my AP case was approved on the 11th of February

I also can't understand how USCIS gave you the "wrong" case number?  How does that happen??

[EnglishLove 112]

Just now, Jorgedig said:

If no I-9 was requested, I doubt there would even be an HR department.  Legitimate US businesses do not omit that step, because of federal laws and all.

It's a private own company. I talked with the owner's wife today to get an employment offer letter to have the card expedited. She has mentioned something about filing out the I-9, but I know for a fact my husband didn't fill anything out. As far as just have a job offer the only reason, I do have medical for my kids that I really need a second income to help with that would hopefully speed it up.

[SalishSea 16,805]

2 minutes ago, Pooley said:

It's a private own company. I talked with the owner's wife today to get an employment offer letter to have the card expedited. She has mentioned something about filing out the I-9, but I know for a fact my husband didn't fill anything out. As far as just have a job offer the only reason, I do have medical for my kids that I really need a second income to help with that would hopefully speed it up.

Now that is making much more sense as you describe a company that would be less concerned with legal hiring practices.

[NikLR 13,220]

1 hour ago, Loren Y said:

I agree, most jobs training and orientation is a compensated thing, but she signed a letter of conditional employment based on completion of a successful orientation and training that she would NOT be compensated for. Trust me, I was skeptical at first not wanting to risk an issue down the line, but I consulted a Labor lawyer ( a real labor lawyer, not glen lerner or some clown like that) and all was on the up and up. While your company obviously doesn't do things that way, it is in no way illegal or wrong to do it the way they did. According to the lawyer many telemarketing companies and the like do this for the exact reason you stated, people leave after the first day of work, and if you completed an I-9, or didn't have the conditional employment letter signed you would have to pay the employee for that 1 day( A lot of work to add someone to payroll for 1 day of work, you have to pay unemployment insurance, collect state, local, federal taxes, you will then be on the hook for providing a W-2 for that employee in January, etc. etc.) I can go on and on, but you know I'm sure everything that you have to do to hire a new employee, and honestly in the end it will end up costing the company more for paying that employee for 1 day than it would to have paid them for a week.

You wouldn't risk it, that is your choice, but not the only option. I myself would more than likely not take a job with uncompensated training or orientation, but someone that has been sitting on the couch for 6 months waiting for an EAD approval notice would probably risk a day or 2 without pay to finally have a job. I am not condoning working for free in any way, and in my wife's case we had the approval notice in hand, card on the way ( Had tracking information and everything) so I think it depends on the situation and the employer.

Regardless an I-9 needs to be completed and signed by the employee. 

[Loren Y 2,732]

6 minutes ago, NikLR said:

Regardless an I-9 needs to be completed and signed by the employee. 

Yes, no matter what it needs to be done, it's just not required before they start, or I guess I should specify, start getting paid for work. Not many people work for free long... LOL.

[Zoeeeeeee 796]

3 hours ago, geowrian said:

As such, one approach would be to focus not just on the job but, for example, on why the job is required for financial stability.

A counterargument is that they have a sponsor who should be providing this already. But we've seen it approved despite this as well.

You took the words right out of my mouth (and phrased them more succinctly and coherently).

 

I honestly don't understand why they'd expedite on the basis of a job offer without there being some sort of serious, unexpected financial burden that had befallen the applicant - surely until you're legal to work, you shouldn't be applying for jobs? ( @Pooley, obviously I'm not referring to you here as your situation is very different, you thought he was legal)

 

And yes, I thought the whole point of that affidavit of support was to show that the new immigrant wouldn't need to work, as the sponsor could afford to support them.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Zoeeeeeee

[jaysaldi 209]

5 hours ago, Pooley said:

Well apparently our EAD has not been approved. I somehow had the wrong case number. Our case is still pending. Does the employer need to write a letter for me to send in?

I had the wrong case number in my online USCIS account too. The problem is that USCIS has these 13 digit case numbers and you can track the status of a case and add it to your online USCIS account just by inputting the case number with no other information. If you mistype one of the 13 numbers/letters, you will get alerts on the status of someone else's case, and that status info doesn't have your name on it, so there's no way to know you screwed up. 

 

They should make you type in last name or DOB + case number, but they don't.

 

I correctly typed my wife's AP and I-485 case numbers into my online account but transposed two digits on the EAD. So we also got a text message alert that her EAD was approved and mailed to us and delivered to our mailbox. When no card arrived, I called USCIS and realized my mistake, I was getting alerts on someone else's EAD status.

Edited March 10, 2020 by jaysaldi

[jaysaldi 209]

1 hour ago, Jorgedig said:

I also can't understand how USCIS gave you the "wrong" case number?  How does that happen??

See my post above.  USCIS gives the right case number but then the applicant inputs it incorrectly into the case status tracker.

Edited March 10, 2020 by jaysaldi

[Illiria 980]

1 hour ago, Pooley said:

She has mentioned something about filing out the I-9, but I know for a fact my husband didn't fill anything out.

This could be very bad, have your husband ask to see it if it was done on paper. If she filled it in ‘on his behalf’ she could have claimed he was a US citizen which is very bad for your husband. 

[jaysaldi 209]

2 minutes ago, Illiria said:

This could be very bad, have your husband ask to see it if it was done on paper. If she filled it in ‘on his behalf’ she could have claimed he was a US citizen which is very bad for your husband. 

You may also want your husband to have a printout of the erroneous status update in hand with an explanation of how you guys got the case numbers wrong, lest HR suspect that he pulled the wool over their eyes and initially lied about having valid work status in order to get hired.