DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A metro Atlanta father says the U.S. Postal Service failed his family. Now, he’s running out of money and warning others.
He was expecting a critical piece of mail to show up at the USPS sorting facility in Palmetto last month.
It was his work permit.
He asked Channel 2 Action News not to share his name in fear of deportation or retaliation. He applied for asylum this year, waited the mandatory five months to apply for a temporary work permit and was expecting it to show up in the mail in Nov. It never did.
“It’s, like, in limbo since November 20,” said the Douglas County dad.
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Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco searched his tracking number Friday night. A banner written in red at the top of the USPS website said Alert: missing mail.
It was last tracked leaving a distribution center in Knoxville, Tenn. It would have eventually had to come to the sorting facility in Palmetto.
A USPS spokesperson offered a customer support number.
She did not respond when asked if someone could have stolen it or if it could be lost in Palmetto.
USPS sent the father an e-mail Monday. It said his case is closed.
A Complaints and Inquiry Clerk wrote, “Due to the number of days since your package was mailed, we know it should have arrived by now. This leads us to believe the mailing label/package may have been damaged in processing.”
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“I need to provide for my family. I need to provide for myself, and I need to get a driver’s license. Without a work permit, you can’t get a driver’s license,” said the dad.
He will have to come up with $475 and reapply for the work permit, wait a month or longer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to approve it. Then, he will have to brace for it to arrive in the mail.
The father is not alone. Social media is ripe with posts in which people are asking for help because USPS lost their immigration permits.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services only uses USPS to send the crucial documents, an organization under scrutiny in Congress due to mail delivery delays and sorting facility inefficiencies.
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Channel 2 Action News is waiting to hear back from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to find out how often clients request new permits due to USPS failures. We are waiting to hear back.
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