New multi-year work permits and adhesive stickers to extend outdated permits are among the recommendations given to federal officials in order to reduce delays in processing documentation for immigrant workers.

Immigrants who have obtained temporary legal status, or those awaiting permanent residence status, are currently required to renew their work permits every year.

The Citizenship and Immigration Services ombudsman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a report issued Oct. 1, said many immigrants have complained that they have lost their jobs or are in danger of losing them due to delays in processing their work permits.

Under the law, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must process permits in 90 days or issue a provisional permit.

The ombudsman's report criticized the Citizenship and Immigration Services for not complying with the 90-day limit, and ``not giving sufficient explanation, nor offering alternative solutions to resolve the delays.''

CIS officials pledged to ''immediately'' conduct an audit to determine which cases have been delayed for more than 70 days and to reduce the processing time to 75 days.

The agency also pledged to reduce the time taken to process provisional permits to four hours for immigrants who visit local immigration offices and whose wait has exceeded the 90-day limit.

The improvements that were announced did little to satisfy pro-immigrant organizations that have criticized the delays and opposed the newly increased processing fees.

The fee for a one-year work permit is $340, up from $175 in 2004.

CIS said it raised the fees to speed up service, something that the activists say has not happened in many cases.

Miami-based Honduran activist Jose Lagos said many immigrants covered by temporary protection status must renew their permits annually, and often don't have the money to do so.

With this in mind, the ombudsman recommended creation of multi-year work permits that, according to the report, would help eliminate delays and preserve immigrants' jobs.

The ombudsman also recommended adoption of stickers that could be obtained to renew permits and avoid fraud.

CIS officials have made no promises to implement the ombudsman's recommendations for multi-year permits and the use of stickers.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@