Expediting Your USCIS Application with Help From Your Congressman

DID YOU KNOW THAT: you can expedite your USCIS application by reaching out to your congressman to appeal to USCIS on your behalf?

In 2020, our founder, Dahun had to expedite her application for OPT (Optional Practical Training), a type of work authorization, due to delays in her OPT processing. As an international student, expediting your OPT due to personal financial loss will NOT be approved by USCIS. In Dahun’s case, she worked with the company that she had a pending offer with to expedite her OPT on grounds of financial loss to the company due to potential delays in her start date if the OPT were not approved speedily. Dahun’s expedite request was approved by USCIS, and her OPT was approved within 1 week of submission of the expedite request.

Below are steps to take if you need to expedite your work authorization (or other USCIS cases) with help from your congressman:

1. Find out the senators for the state you reside in. You can do so by googling who the senators for your state are. This is important because your senators can appeal on your behalf to USCIS and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) to expedite the processing of your work authorization or other pending cases you have with USCIS

2. Visit the official website for one of the senators of your state

3. Then follow the prompt to “get help with a federal agency”

Other acceptable reasons for expediting your application for work authorization with USCIS

Follow this link to learn more about other reasons that USCIS will accept for expediting your application for work authorization