DHS Extends and Redesignates Yemen and Somalia for Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

Yemen

On December 30, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the extension of TPS for Yemen for 18 months, from March 4, 2023 through September 3, 2024, allowing existing TPS beneficiaries to retain TPS through September 3, 2024 as long as they continue to meet the eligibility requirements.

Existing Yemeni TPS beneficiaries wishing to extend their status must re-register during the 60-day re-registration period that goes from January 3, 2023 until March 4, 2023. In addition, because DHS is redesignating Yemen for TPS, more Yemeni nationals and individuals having no nationality who last habitually resided in Yemen can apply for an initial grant of TPS by registering between January 3, 2023 and September 4, 2024. New applicants must have been continuously residing in the United States since December 29, 2022. For more information on how to re-register for TPS or on how to apply for an initial grant of TPS and an Employment Authorization Document, applicants can visit USCIS’s principal TPS webpage as well as Yemen’s specific TPS USCIS webpage.

Somalia

On January 12, 2023, DHS announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia for 18 months, from March 18, 2023 through September 17, 2024. Existing Somalian TPS beneficiaries can retain TPS through September 17, 2024 as long as they continue to meet the eligibility requirements.

In addition, DHS is also redesignating Somalia for TPS. This means that more Somalian nationals as well as individuals having no nationality who last habitually resided in Somalia will be able to apply for an initial grant of TPS and an Employment Authorization Document. New applicants must have been continuously residing in the United States since January 11, 2023.

The 18-month extension and redesignation of TPS for Somalia will go into effect on the publication date of the forthcoming Federal Register notice. The Federal Register notice will provide instructions for applying for both extensions and initial grants of TPS and an Employment Authorization Document. Applicants are also encouraged to visit USCIS’s principal TPS webpage as well as Somalia’s specific TPS USCIS webpage.

DHS Designates Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status for 18 Months

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today the designation of Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months. Only individuals who are already residing in the United States as of March 15, 2022, will be eligible for TPS.

The designation is based on ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent the country’s nationals from returning in safety, including armed conflict as the Taliban seeks to impose control in all areas of the country, attacks against civilians by Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), a collapsing public sector, a worsening economic crisis, drought, food and water insecurity, lack of access to healthcare, and internal displacement.

TPS will apply only to those individuals who are already residing in the United States as of March 15, 2022, and meet all other requirements, including undergoing security and background checks. Afghan nationals who arrived as part of the Operation Allies Welcome evacuation effort and were paroled into the United States may also be eligible for TPS. Those who attempt to travel to the United States after March 15, 2022, will not be eligible for TPS.

The 18-month designation of TPS for Afghanistan will go into effect on the publication date of the forthcoming Federal Register notice. The Federal Register notice will provide instructions for applying for TPS and an Employment Authorization Document.

DHS Designates Sudan and Re-Designates South Sudan for TPS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced a new 18-month designation of Sudan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that will become effective upon publication of an upcoming Federal Register Notice (FRN). DHS also announced the extension and redesignation of South Sudan for TPS for 18 months, effective May 3, 2022, through November 3, 2023. An FRN providing further information on TPS for South Sudan was posted for public inspection today.

The new TPS designation enables nationals of Sudan and individuals having no nationality who last habitually resided in Sudan, and who have continuously resided in the U.S. since March 1, 2022, to file initial applications for TPS. This designation also allows nationals of Sudan whose TPS is currently continued under the TPS-related court orders to file an initial application under this new designation, which will ensure those eligible avoid losing TPS or experiencing a gap in coverage.

The extension and redesignation of South Sudan for TPS allows current beneficiaries to retain TPS through November 3, 2023, as long as they meet TPS eligibility requirements. The redesignation of TPS for South Sudan allows South Sudanese nationals and individuals having no nationality who last habitually resided in South Sudan, and who have been continuously residing in the U.S. since March 1, 2022, to file an initial application to obtain TPS, if they are otherwise eligible.

The FRNs explain the procedures necessary to submit an initial registration or re-registration application and to apply for an Employment Authorization Document.

Supreme Court Says TPS Is Not an Admission for Purposes of Adjustment of Status (June 8, 2021)

On Monday, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents if they entered the U.S. illegally.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from seeking “green cards” to remain in the country permanently.

The TPS designation applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally in the U.S. Currently, there are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

The case, Sanchez et ux. v. Mayorkas, involved a couple from El Salvador who have been in the U.S. since the 1990s, and questioned whether people who entered the country illegally and later were given humanitarian protections under TPS were ever “admitted” into the United States under immigration law, as is required for those seeking lawful permanent resident status within the U.S.

Kagan wrote that they were not. “The TPS program gives foreign nationals nonimmigrant status, but it does not admit them. So the conferral of TPS does not make an unlawful entrant...eligible” for a green card, she wrote. The decision does not affect immigrants with TPS who initially entered the U.S. legally and then, say, overstayed their visa, Kagan noted. Because those people were legally admitted to the country and later were given humanitarian protections, they can seek lawful permanent resident status.

The American Dream and Promise Act, which has passed in the House of Representatives, would permit TPS recipients to apply for permanent residence even if they first entered the U.S. without inspection, but its chances of passage in the Senate remain uncertain.

Citizenship Paths For Dreamers, Farmworkers Pass House; Future in Senate Uncertain (Mar. 19, 2021)

On Thursday, House Democrats passed a pair of bills that would create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and some migrant farm workers, taking a gradual approach compared to President Biden’s major immigration package. The Dream and Promise Act would provide certainty to undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children whose ability to go to school, get work and even remain in the country has hung in the balance from administration to administration. The bill would also allow those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to apply for citizenship, a group from countries around the world that ranges from those fleeing civil unrest and natural disasters as early as the 1990s to Venezuelans deemed eligible for the status by the Biden administration earlier this month. In total, the Dream and Promise Act would help naturalize nearly 4.5 million people.

The House on Thursday also approved legislation that provides a citizenship pathway for seasonal migrant farmworkers, allowing those who have been traveling to the U.S. for work for a decade to apply for citizenship after another four years. 

That bill, which passed 247-174, is expected to provide citizenship to more than a million migrants, and it also ups the number of agricultural visas available to those seeking to come to the U.S. for work.

Both face an uncertain future in the Senate, where Republicans continue to push for increased border security as a condition for action on bills benefiting Dreamers and others.

Though the two bills together would provide a substantial number of noncitizens with the ability to naturalize, it falls short of the 11 million figure that would be covered by the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, a major immigration package pushed by Biden.

Though the White House issued statements of support for both bills, it also urged the passing of Biden’s bill, stressing the need “to reform other aspects of our immigration system.”