This year got off to a busy start for Daphne and Alex. After almost five years together, they got married. Daphne was training for a new job at a local theater in Colorado. Alex was juggling gigs as a motion-graphics freelancer and a barista.

When the coronavirus hit, they found themselves among the millions suddenly jobless. Compounding this bad news was an unexpected anxiety: Is it safe to apply for unemployment?

"We were just wondering for a long time ... how is it going to affect the green card application?" Alex said.

"Immigration-wise, I just don't know if it would hurt me," Daphne said.

Alex is American, but Daphne is from Germany. NPR is using only their first names because they are waiting for the U.S. government to decide whether to grant Daphne a green card. This piece of paper would turn her from a temporary visitor — a foreign student — into a permanent resident, extending her right to work and live with her husband in the United States.

Theirs were among a half-dozen stories NPR gathered about legal immigrant workers, people earning a living and paying taxes in the U.S. yet fearful that collecting unemployment might jeopardize their immigration cases. Some were waiting on their first green cards; others were extending their residency or were even on the verge of becoming citizens.

Article by NPR - click here for the original article

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