Revised 8/2024
Failure to Appear for Decision Service: If you are required to receive and acknowledge your asylum decision at an
asylum office but fail to appear, your 180-day Asylum EAD Clock will stop and you may be ineligible to receive
employment authorization. If your case has been referred to an immigration court, your 180-day Asylum EAD Clock will
not begin again until your first hearing with an immigration judge, at the soonest. For more information on this, visit
www.uscis.gov/asylum.
Cases pending with EOIR
Asylum cases pending with EOIR are adjudicated at hearings before an immigration judge. At the conclusion (or
“adjournment”) of each hearing, the immigration judge will determine the reason for the adjournment.
E
OIR provides an exhaustive list of adjournment codes that may be applied to a case before the immigration judge on the
EOIR website under the Shared Practice Manual Appendices, Appendix O - Immigration Court Adjournment Codes at
https://www.justice.gov/eoir/reference-materials/general/shared-appendices/o
. The impact of the adjournment codes on an
applicant’s 180-day Asylum EAD Clock is listed under EAD Clock Effect as “Stops,” “Runs,” and “Neutral.” Your
employment authorization application will not be approved until the asylum application has been pending for a total of 180
days, regardless of the code(s) that may be applied to any given case. The 180 days does not include delays that you request
or cause while your asylum application is pending with USCIS or with the immigration court.
If the adjournment is attributed to the immigration court or the Department of Homeland Security, you will continue
accumulating time toward your 180-day Asylum EAD Clock.
I
f the reason for the adjournment is attributed to you, you will stop accumulating time toward the 180-day Asylum EAD
Clock until your next hearing. In addition, you may stop accumulating time towards your 180-day Asylum EAD Clock
between hearings if you file a motion that delays proceedings and the immigration judge grants the motion. For example,
if you or your attorney filed a motion for a continuance, you will stop accumulating time when the immigration judge
grants the motion. The reason for the adjournment of the next hearing will determine whether you will begin to accrue
time again after the next hearing.
T
he accumulation of time on your 180-day Asylum EAD Clock stops on the date an immigration judge issues a decision
on your asylum application. If your asylum application is denied before 180 days have elapsed on the 180-day Asylum
EAD Clock, you will not be eligible for employment authorization. The filing of a motion to reopen or reconsider to the
Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) (or the filing of a petition for review to a U.S. Court of Appeals) does not meet the
EAD eligibility requirement that the asylum application remains pending; the asylum application is only considered
pending when a motion to reopen or reconsider filed with the BIA (or a petition for review filed with a U.S. Court of
Appeals) is granted.
I
f the decision is appealed to the BIA or a U.S. Court of Appeals and the BIA or U.S. Court of Appeals remands it (sends
it back) to an immigration judge or the BIA for continued adjudication of your asylum application, USCIS will credit your
180-day Asylum EAD Clock with the total number of days on appeal (e.g., the time between the immigration judge’s
decision and the date of the BIA’s remand order or between the BIA’s decision and the date of the U.S. Court of Appeals’
remand order). You will continue to accumulate time on the 180-day Asylum EAD Clock while your asylum application
is pending after the remand order, excluding any additional delays you request or cause. Because EAD eligibility relies
upon time credited from remand, please provide a copy of the complete remand order from the BIA to the immigration
judge or, where applicable, from the U.S. Court of Appeals to the BIA, when you submit your Form I-765.
How do I find more information about the 180-day Asylum EAD Clock if I am in removal proceedings?
If you are an asylum applicant in removal proceedings before EOIR, you may call the EOIR Automated Case Information
System at (800) 898-7180 (TDD 800-828-1120) (toll-free in the United States) or (304) 625-2050 (local toll call) to obtain
certain information about your 180-day Asylum EAD Clock. Additionally, EOIR's Online Automated Case Information
System (“Online ACIS”) can be used to obtain basic case hearing and motions information and in certain instances case
decisions. Available at https://acis.eoir.justice.gov/. Unrepresented applicants may request a print-out from EOIR of
their case-specific adjournment code history in person or in writing.
To
determine the number of days on your 180-day Asylum EAD Clock, you may rely on the number of days reported
by the EOIR Automated Case Information System if you did not lodge your application with an immigration court or
if your application was not remanded from the BIA for further adjudication of your asylum application.
H
owever, in some cases, you may have accumulated more time on the 180-day Asylum EAD Clock than the number
of days reported on the EOIR hotline. The number of days reported on the hotline does not include: