A recently published Federal Register Notice confirmed The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) will continue to extend Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) designations for nationals of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Sudan, and Nepal. DHS is automatically extending the validity of TPS Status and employment authorization documents for beneficiaries from the countries listed above through June 30, 2024.
Read moreDHS Designates Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 Months
On March 16, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced the designation of Afghanistan for temporary protected status (“TPS”) for eighteen months to help protect Afghan nationals in the United States from returning to unsafe conditions. Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas noted “TPS will also provide additional protections and assurances to trusted partners and vulnerable Afghans who supported the U.S. military, diplomatic, and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan over the last 20 years.” TPS designation is available to nationals of Afghanistan who are already residing in the United States as of March 15, 2022, and meet all other requirements, including undergoing security and background checks.
Read moreDHS Designates Ukraine for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 Months
On March 3, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced the designation of Ukraine for temporary protected status (“TPS”) for eighteen months. This decision comes as a result of the escalating violence and the development of a humanitarian crisis in the wake of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Earlier in the week, bipartisan Senators urged President Biden to designate Ukraine for TPS.
Read moreUSCIS: Re-Registration Period Opens for Syrians with Temporary Protected Status
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced this week that current beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under Syria’s designation who want to maintain their status through September 30, 2019, must re-register between March 5, and May 4, 2018. The procedures for re-registration, including how to renew employment authorization documentation, have been published in the Federal Register and on the USCIS website. To re-register, all applicants must submit Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status; additionally, applicants may also request (at the same time or later) an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) by submitting a Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. Both of these forms are free on USCIS’ website at uscis.gov/tps.
Read moreOPINION: How the Immigration Landscape Changed in 2017
When Donald Trump won the election, many immigrants and their advocates feared the worst. Now that President Trump has been in office for over a year, I wish I could write that everyone’s fears were overblown, but that simply isn’t true. The administration’s actions have met and in some cases exceeded the worst fears of many immigrants and immigration practitioners.
Read moreAs American As Any Other
New York Times: “From Offices to Disney World, Employers Brace for the Loss of an Immigrant Work Force”
As hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and El Salvador prepare to lose their legal status when Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for their countries end, some employers across the country are preparing for significant losses to their workforce. These TPS recipients, along with DACA recipients whose long-term status in the US remains unclear, make up approximately a million individuals in the US, many within the American work force.
Read moreDHS: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Designation for El Salvador Will Terminate on September 9, 2019
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week that the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation that has allowed approximately 200,000 Salvadorians to reside in the US after earthquakes devastated their country in 2001 will be terminated as of September 19, 2019.
Read moreDHS Ends TPS for Nicaraguans and Hatians
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week that they would be automatically extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 86,000 Hondurans for an additional six months (less than the normal extension period) while at the same time announcing an end to TPS for thousands of Nicaraguans, providing them with a one-year wind down period that will end in January of 2019. While both countries were granted TPS in 1999 after a devastating hurricane killed thousands of Central Americans, the department concluded that the conditions in Nicaragua are now better than they were before the hurricane hit.
Read moreUSCIS Is Reissuing Receipt Notices to Certain EAD Renewal Applicants
Beginning February 16, 2017, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) began reissuing receipt notices (Form I-797) to individuals who applied to renew their Employment Authorization Document (EAD) between July 21, 2016 and January 16, 2017, and whose applications remain pending in the following categories:
- (a)(3) Refugee;
- (a)(5) Asylee;
- (a)(7) N-8 or N-9;
- (a)(8) Citizen of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, or Palau;
- (a)(10) Withholding of deportation or removal granted;
- (c)(8) Asylum application pending;
- (c)(9) Pending adjustment of status under section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
- (c)(10) Suspension of deportation applicants (filed before April 1, 1997), cancellation of removal applicants, and special rule cancellation of removal applicants under NACARA;
- (c)(16) Creation of record (adjustment based on continuous residence since January 1, 1972);
- (c)(20) Section 210 Legalization (pending Form I-700);
- (c)(22) Section 245A Legalization (pending Form I-687);
- (c)(24) LIFE Legalization; and
- (c)(31) VAWA self-petitioners;
The reissuing of these receipts was necessitated by the change in USCIS regulations on January 17, 2017, when USCIS started automatically extending certain expiring EADs for up to 180 days while renewal applications were pending. The automatic extensions apply only to certain applicants who properly filed for a renewal EAD before their current EAD expired, whose EAD renewal is under a category that is eligible for an automatic 180-day extension, and when the category on the applicant’s current EAD matches the “Class Requested” listed on the Notice of Action.
USCIS is reissuing the receipt notices since some of the notices sent out before that date did not contain the applicant’s EAD eligibility category and in order to ensure EAD applicants have proof of their status for I-9 purposes. The reissued receipt notices will contain:
- The applicant’s EAD eligibility category;
- The receipt date, which is the date USCIS received the EAD renewal application and which employers must use to determine whether the automatic EAD extension applies;
- The notice date, which is the date USCIS reissued the receipt notice; and
- New information about the 180-day EAD extension.
To satisfy requirements for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, EAD applicants may present the reissued receipt notice with their expired EAD to their employer as a List A document.
Additionally, it should be noted that applicants with an EAD based on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) who filed their EAD renewal applications before January 17, 2017, already received a six-month extension through the Federal Register notice that extended their country’s TPS designation. These applicants therefore will not receive a reissued receipt notice. All renewal applicants who filed Form I-765 applications on or after January 17, 2017, including TPS renewal applicants, will receive Form I-797 receipt notices that contain eligibility category information and information about the 180-day EAD extension.