For New York City’s thousands of asylum seekers, all in a day’s work is anything but. Most migrants in the Big Apple need to wait 150 days after filing their initial asylum case before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can issue an employment authorization document (EAD) to legally work.
Sidelining arrivals for roughly five months can be detrimental in the country’s most expensive city, compounded by a move last year to limit stays in temporary shelters. Beyond the wait, case workers told the AmNews even the filing process for asylum cases can be challenging.
But for those who remain in the city after the wait period, what does the job hunt look like?
For Jorge, an asylum seeker from Colombia whose last name is withheld for protection, landing a gig as a residential doorman meant a career change and culture shock. Before coming to the United States, he worked nearly two decades in information technology while his wife was a nurse.
“When [we] finally received work permits, [we] were on the hunt finding jobs within those fields,” he said. “Every time [I] went to any place, they all asked for certifications [from the U.S. or New York] and so because of that, it made it hard and there were a lot of obstacles to overcome in order to continue that field here.
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“While being here in New York, for it to be in that specific field, [employers are] asking [us] to be at a specific level of English.”
Instead, he and his wife completed mentorship programs as part of their job search, linking them to colleagues with various professional credentials. Jorge found his new job through a shelter staff member who learned about his familiarity with surveillance cameras and connected him with a security company.
Since starting the job, Jorge says he’s cautiously moving through the onboarding process—sending over documentation, filing his fingerprints and obtaining his driver’s license. He’s nervous about starting and told the Amsterdam News that he needs to adjust to American work culture which prioritizes efficiency.
“[I] like giving good results and not bad results,” he said. “[I will] have to work on speeding up the process of how [I do my] work, but also make sure that I still maintain the [quality].”
A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams says the city assisted with 18,179 work authorization permits as of this week through an application help center opened last June.
New York Immigration Coalition’s Kim Corona translated the interview.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.