Refugees and Asylees face significant challenges in obtaining and maintaining valid Refugee Travel Documents. This document allows us to travel in and out of the country, which can be crucial for our personal, professional, and family needs.

Currently, it takes approximately 16 months from the application date to receive a Refugee Travel Document, and its validity period is only one year. This means that we wait longer for the document than we can actually use it. This situation makes us unable to:

• Attend important family events such as weddings or funerals;

• Seek employment for positions that require international travel;

• Reunite with family members.

We propose a two-step solution:

 1. Increase the Refugee Travel Document validity from 1 year to 2 - 5 years. This will allow us to use the document for a longer period and reduce the number of applications we file each year. Consequently, this measure will lessen the workload of USCIS officers, and the relieved workforce can then address our second proposal.

2. Shorten the Refugee Travel Document application wait time from 16 months to 6 months. This change would not only align with U.S. law, which states that “processing of an immigration benefit application should be completed not later than 180 days after the initial filing of the application” (8 U.S. Code § 1571), but also significantly benefit refugees by reducing unnecessary delays.

We are not seeking special treatment; we are requesting that USCIS complies with the law. This petition is one of the ways we are advocating for this change.     

Thank you to everyone for reading and signing!