Biden Administration Considering To Exempt Afghan Evacuees From Paying Application Fees To Work or Apply For Lawful Permanent Residence

The Biden administration does not intend to charge those fleeing Afghanistan any money in order to apply for work permits in the United States.

(Photo : Lukas Schulze/Getty Images)
Young evacuees from Afghanistan gesture to a member of the U.S. military as evacuees wait for boarding into a passenger plane bound for the U.S. at the U.S. military's Ramstein air base.

Fees Afghans Are Paying

In a recently published article in Business Insider, work permit applications cost $410, and costs for securing lawful permanent residency might cost up to $1,225. This has become a burden to almost all Afghans who are currently in the U.S. today.

Meanwhile, parolees have not been spared from paying filing costs of $575 per person, which is the equivalent of an average Afghan year's wage; and those costs might mount up quickly. A family of 22 was requested to pay $12,650 after their case was publicized by one assistance organization.

While the application price stays the same, Matthew Bourke, a DHS spokeswoman, pointed out that candidates filing a request for humanitarian parole may obtain a fee waiver via a different procedure, according to a published report in CNN News.

Homeland Security Secretary, Advocate Released a Statement

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that the US will open doors of opportunity for its Afghan partners by giving accelerated processing and tax waivers to these evacuees, allowing them to begin rebuilding their lives in places throughout the nation more rapidly.

President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Krish O'Mara Vignarajah also said that the news made today gives much-needed financial assistance to their newest Afghan neighbors. The majority of the families they serve have no savings, so every cost is a cause of worry and concern, according to a report published in MSN News.

Last month, a group of Democratic senators requested DHS and US Citizenship and Immigration Services to cancel application costs for Afghans seeking humanitarian parole to enter the US, claiming that the cost of the payments is putting a strain on communities here.

Numbers of Afghans Who Have Come To the United States

According to the Department of Homeland Security, around 51,000 individuals work at eight Department of Defense locations in the United States, with another 2,500 working at sites in Europe and the Middle East. Since August 17, a total of 68,000 Afghans have arrived in the United States, only days before the US troops withdrew from their nation at the end of the month. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 14,000 of them have been relocated to the United States.

Afghans on humanitarian parole, like refugees, have been assessed and admitted to the United States based on a real fear of persecution. However, since they were evacuated immediately from Afghanistan, they do not have access to the full range of benefits offered to people with permanent refugee status the US has requested volunteers to assist support their relocation.

70,000 Afghans have fled to the United States since the civilian government of Afghanistan collapsed in August. The vast majority of them are still based on US military sites. Many of the refugee customers have voiced their dissatisfaction with the incompetence of the bureaucracy that has kept them from obtaining the dignity of a job and the financial stability that comes with it.