This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 24, 2024, that it is refunding all of the I-765 employment authorization document (EAD) fees collected from eligible Ukrainian parolees who entered as parolees after February 24, 2022. The action is a result of a class action lawsuit against USCIS.
IMMpact Litigation sued USCIS in August 2022 for failing to carry out provisions in the 2022 Ukraine supplemental bill, which mandated that Ukrainian parolees be provided automatic, free employment authorization. As a result of the litigation, IMMpact noted, USCIS changed its policy to recognize automatic work authorization in November 2022 but failed to refund unlawfully collected I-765 EAD fees for applications received before that date. IMMpact filed a second suit in 2023 to recover those funds for tens of thousands of Ukrainians.
USCIS will refund the filing fee Ukrainians paid for their initial EADs if they:
- Were paroled under the Uniting for Ukraine process or were paroled between February 24, 2022, and September 30, 2023;
- Filed their initial Form I-765 between May 21, 2022, and November 21, 2022, based on their parole; and
- Paid a filing fee of $410.
IMMpact Litigation is a collaboration of the firms Bless Litigation in Boston, Massachusetts; Joseph & Hall in Denver, Colorado; Kuck Baxter in Atlanta, Georgia; and Siskind Susser in Memphis, Tennessee.
