How to find a job in the US as a refugee

It depends on your status. There are three groups, and the difference matters to every employer, who must check your documents on Form I-9 in your first days.

• Resettled refugees: authorised to work from admission. Your Form I-94 with a refugee admission stamp is evidence of work authorisation you can show an employer. An EAD is optional. After one year in the US, the law requires you to apply for a green card. Principal refugees pay no Form I-485 fee.
• Asylees (people granted asylum): immediately authorised to work. USCIS mails you an EAD automatically; if it hasn’t arrived within 90 days, contact USCIS.
• Asylum applicants (case pending): not authorised to work until you have an EAD. You can file Form I-765 150 days after filing your asylum application, and USCIS cannot grant it until the case has been pending for a total of 180 days.

If you have not yet applied for asylum, the general deadline is within one year of arriving in the US. Get advice from a licensed attorney or an accredited representative, not a notario público: USCIS warns that notarios are not authorised to give immigration legal advice.

The 180-day asylum EAD clock counts the days your asylum application is pending. Delays you cause stop it, for example asking to reschedule an interview, missing an appointment or sending evidence late. From 21 August 2026, USCIS requires all evidence 14 calendar days before the interview and only reschedules an interview for exceptional circumstances, so treat every date as fixed.

Fees now apply. USCIS’s fee schedule (edition 09/09/26) lists no filing fee for an initial asylum-based EAD, but a separate $560 fee under Pub. L. 119-21 (H.R. 1) that cannot be waived. There is also a $100 fee when you file for asylum, and an Annual Asylum Fee, listed at $102 online, for each year the case is pending. Since 29 May 2026, if you don’t pay the annual fee within 30 days of USCIS’s notice, USCIS rejects your asylum application, denies any pending EAD application based on it, and ends any work authorisation you already have. Pay it online, on time, and keep the receipt.

DHS proposed on 23 February 2026 to extend the wait to 365 days and to pause new asylum EAD applications whenever average processing takes longer than 180 days. When we checked on 11 September 2026, it was still a proposal. Check the USCIS asylum page before you file.

Refugee entry through the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has been suspended since 27 January 2025, except where the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security make an exception. The FY 2026 ceiling was set at 7,500, allocated mainly to Afrikaners from South Africa, and raised to 17,500 in May 2026 for the same group.

For refugees already in the US, the work rules above have not changed: your I-94 still proves your right to work. What has changed is how much attention you should pay to deadlines and letters. Keep your address up to date with USCIS, and file for your green card once you reach one year.

USCIS paused new Uniting for Ukraine sponsorship applications (Form I-134A) in January 2025 while it reviews all categorical parole programmes. People already paroled may request re-parole by filing Form I-131, and each request is decided case by case. A parolee EAD now carries the H.R. 1 fee, although the fee schedule sets a $0 filing fee (plus the $560 H.R. 1 fee) for initial EADs for Ukrainians paroled between 24 February 2022 and 30 September 2024 and some of their family members.

Temporary Protected Status for Ukraine is listed on USCIS’s page, updated 3 September 2026, as running to 19 October 2026. Watch that page for any extension or termination notice. Because your status is temporary, choose work that builds skills you can use wherever you end up living, and keep your EAD dates in your calendar.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) funds services for refugees and other eligible groups through states and resettlement agencies. Its site describes job readiness, employment services, case management and English training available for up to five years. The programmes to ask about by name:

• Matching Grant: intensive job support from one of eight national resettlement agencies, with the aim of self-sufficiency through work within 240 days and without cash assistance. You must enrol within 31 days of arrival or eligibility.
• Refugee Career Pathways: for people in the US less than five years who are authorised to work and want to continue a professional or skilled career. Services can include a career plan, evaluation of foreign degrees, training and help with licensing and exam fees.
• Employer Engagement Program: workplace-based English and job-skills training designed with local employers.
• Refugee Cash Assistance: short-term financial help for refugees who don’t qualify for TANF. Refugee Support Services connects you to employment services. Your agency can tell you what you qualify for.

Your local American Job Center also offers job search help and job referrals.

The first job is often below your level. Treat it as a bridge, not a verdict. In the US, foreign degrees are usually assessed by independent credential evaluation services, many of them members of NACES, whose reports employers, universities and licensing boards use. Licensed professions, such as medicine and nursing, are regulated by state licensing boards, which set their own requirements and decide which evaluations they accept. Refugee Career Pathways can help with evaluation and licensing costs.

Upwardly Global, a nonprofit, runs free programmes for immigrants, refugees and asylees with professional credentials and work authorisation. Our qualification recognition guide covers how to plan a return to a regulated profession.

Use the standard US format: one page for most people, no photo, no age, results in every role. Our US resume guide covers the layout. Then solve the problems specific to your situation.

• Experience from home: translate your title to the closest US equivalent and add one line on the employer (sector, size, what it did). A hiring manager in Houston won’t know a ministry in Kabul or a hospital in Aleppo.
• Gaps from displacement: one factual line is enough, such as “2021–2023: Relocated to the US; English classes and volunteer interpreting”. How much of your story you share is your choice.
• Missing certificates: list the qualification, institution and year honestly. Add “credential evaluation in progress” once you have applied.
• Work authorisation: if you are a refugee, asylee or EAD holder, add “Authorised to work in the US” to your header. Many recruiters assume otherwise.
• US experience: put volunteering, internships and your first job in the experience section with concrete tasks, and ask each manager for a reference.