Today, USCIS announced that it will continue to process I-765 Application for Employment Authorization renewal requests despite the inability of applicants to have new biometrics captured due to the temporary closure of all USCIS Application Support Centers (ASCs) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, USCIS stated that it will reuse previously submitted biometrics to process these applications.
Note that only a limited set of I-765 renewal applications require biometrics including those requests filed by
An applicant requesting consideration under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA);
A beneficiary of an approved employment-based immigrant petition facing compelling circumstances;
A spouse or unmarried dependent child of a beneficiary of an employment-based immigrant petition facing compelling circumstances; or
Applicant for Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) long-term resident status.
Thus it appears that only these limited classes of I-765 application renewal requests will benefit from the biometrics reuse policy. However, because numerous additional types of renewals requests, including I-539 Application Requesting Extension of Nonimmigrant Status, also require biometrics and, thus, are also impacted by ASC closures, it is possible that USCIS intends to expand the reuse of previously submitted biometrics to other impacted filings, though they have made no such announcement at this time.
D&S will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they become available.