DHS Continues Temporary Protected Status and Related Documentation for Certain Beneficiaries of TPS

On November 10, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a Federal Register Notice announcing the continuation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and certain related benefits for beneficiaries under the TPS designations that remain subject to the court orders in ongoing lawsuits (Ramos et al. v. Nielsen and Bhattarai et al. v. Nielsen et al.)

TPS beneficiaries under the designations for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal, as well as the 2011 Haiti designation and the 2013 Sudan designation will retain their TPS while the preliminary injunction in Ramos and the stay of proceedings order in Bhattarai remain in effect, provided they continue to meet all the individual requirements for TPS eligibility. The automatic extension of TPS-related documentation includes specified Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) through June 30, 2024. These current beneficiaries do not need to pay a fee or file any application to maintain their TPS and have their TPS-related documentation automatically extended.

Beneficiaries who want a new EAD with the new expiration date of June 30, 2024 displayed on the EAD must file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, along with the filing fee or a fee waiver request. The Federal Register Notice explains how TPS beneficiaries, their employers and benefit-granting agencies may determine which EADs are automatically extended for the beneficiaries.

Individuals who were newly granted TPS under the 2021 TPS designation of Haiti or the 2022 TPS designation of Sudan, but who did not have TPS under the 2011 Haiti designation or the 2013 Sudan designation, are not covered by this litigation compliance notice. Their TPS grants remain valid in accordance with their individual notices of approval from USCIS. In order to receive TPS under the new Haiti or Sudan designations, eligible individuals must apply before the close of the registration periods on Feb. 3, 2023 (for Haiti), and Oct. 19, 2023 (for Sudan).

DHS has published regular notices to ensure its continued compliance withthe Ramosand Bhattarai court orders since issuance of those orders. DHS last published a Federal Register Notice to ensure its continued compliance with these combined court orders on Sept. 10, 2021. That notice again continued TPS and extended certain TPS-related documentation through Dec. 31, 2022, for all eligible TPS beneficiaries covered by the courts’ orders.

Additionally, according to USCIS’s announcement on November 17, 2022 on this subject, individuals with a pending or approved TPS application may qualify for certain public benefits and REAL ID driver's licenses and identification cards. When applying for a Federal, state, or local government benefit, individuals will need to show a document proving they applied for or are beneficiaries of TPS. They may provide a TPS-based EAD with a category code of A12 or C19, or a copy of their Form I-797, Notice of Action, for a current Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status.

SAVE (the Electronic Immigration Status Verification used by many agencies) will be able to verify an individual's TPS or pending TPS application (and any employment authorization, including any EAD auto-extension) using information from the documents noted above. In some instances, the benefit-granting agency may need to institute additional verification.

For more information regarding the automatic extension of TPS-related documents for beneficiaries from the six designated countries, including which documents have been automatically extended, please refer to the Federal Register Notice dated November 16, 2022.

Additional information related to TPS is available on USCIS’s Temporary Protected Status page.