How can I work with an expired green card before receiving the I-829 receipt notice?

An individual with an I-829 pending is considered a permanent resident and can work in the United States. You should visit your local USCIS office by requesting an InfoPass appointment and ask for a stamp that allows you to work while you wait adjudication.

You may be able to make an appointment at a local USCIS office, or just wait for the receipt notice.

You are authorized to work because you filed your I-829 in a timely manner. If your employer requires proof, attempt to get an InfoPass appointment at your local USCIS field office to get I-551 stamp in your valid foreign passport. Receipts take about three to four weeks to arrive on average.

You are authorized to work and you are only missing the proof of it. If the worst-case scenario occurs, you can make an appointment via InfoPass and try and get a temporary green card stamp. However, the receipts are coming fairly regularly, so expect it to come soon.

Since you filed the I-829 petition in a timely manner, your conditional permanent residency status continues while the I-829 petition is pending. Your work authorization continues since your conditional permanent residency status continues. You can continue to work even though you have not yet received the receipt notice.

You can do an InfoPass appointment with the local USCIS district office and obtain a temporary stamp (I-551) valid for one year showing evidence of lawful permanent resident status. This would facilitate your proof of employment authorization and for travel as well.

Although your card will expire on Nov. 16, 2018, and you have timely filed your application to remove conditions on Form I-829, you do not lose your conditional lawful permanent resident status just because the card itself has expired. You can make an InfoPass appointment and get temporary evidence of your status and continue to work in the U.S. even without the receipt; it should not negatively affect your ability to have your conditions removed upon the approval of your I-829 petition.

You can keep working. Upon receipt, the USCIS will extend your conditional green card by about a year. The one year extension will allow you to keep working while the I-829 is being processed prior to its approval.

Your conditional residency continues as long as your I-829 was timely filed. Your lawyer should be able to check on the cached filing check and find the receipt number for the filing. Even though you may not have the receipt notice in hand, that receipt number could be verified. This means you could continue to work legally under the conditional residency status. When the I-829 receipt notice is issued, it will note the date of filing and that your conditional residency is extended for 18 months.

Ideally, you should get a passport stamp as evidence of your PR status if you file the I-829 too late to get the I-829 receipt timely.

Can you get that statement about delays in issuance of receipts in writing? Discuss with your employer what they would consider as acceptable proof of maintained status and your attorney should be able to help.

If the notice is backdated to the date you filed, then you will have been permitted to work while awaiting the receipt.