Temporary Protected Status

What Temporary Protected Status is. Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is a statutory form of protection created by section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, codified at 8 USC 1254a and implemented at 8 CFR part 244. It is granted because of conditions in a country, not because of anything particular to the applicant. A person who holds it cannot be removed while it lasts, is entitled to work authorization, and cannot be detained by the Department of Homeland Security on the basis of immigration status. 8 USC 1254a(a)(1), (d)(4). It is temporary by design and confers no lasting immigration status.

Who may hold it. Eligibility runs to nationals of a designated foreign state and, equally, to a person of no nationality who last habitually resided in that state. 8 USC 1254a(a)(1), (c)(1)(A). Citizenship of the designated country is therefore not strictly required, a point the older description of this program often obscured. Protection is individual: there is no derivative TPS, so a spouse or child does not acquire the status from a family member who holds it, and each person must qualify and register separately.

The eligibility requirements in outline. An applicant must be a national of a designated state or a person of no nationality who last habitually resided there; must have been continuously physically present in the United States since the effective date of the most recent designation of that state; must have continuously resided in the United States since the date fixed for that state; must be admissible as an immigrant, subject to the waivers described below; must not fall within the bars; and must register during the period announced for that state. 8 USC 1254a(c)(1); 8 CFR 244.2. Brief, casual and innocent absences do not break either the continuous physical presence or the continuous residence requirement, whether or not the absence was authorized. 8 USC 1254a(c)(4).

The bars, and how they differ from ordinary inadmissibility. Two bars are absolute. A person convicted of any felony, or of two or more misdemeanors committed in the United States, is ineligible, as is a person described in the mandatory bars to asylum, which include persecutors of others and those who have engaged in or incited terrorist activity. 8 USC 1254a(c)(2)(B); 8 USC 1158(b)(2)(A); 8 CFR 244.4. Beyond that, admissibility is assessed as for an immigrant, but with two adjustments: several grounds are switched off entirely, and most of the remainder may be waived for humanitarian reasons, to assure family unity or in the public interest. The criminal, drug and national security grounds identified in the statute cannot be waived. 8 USC 1254a(c)(2)(A); 8 CFR 244.3. The list of grounds the statute switches off and the list in the regulation are not identical, so both should be consulted rather than either alone.

Everything begins with the Federal Register notice. A designation, redesignation, extension or termination operates only through publication in the Federal Register, and the notice for a given country is what fixes the registration or re-registration period, the continuous residence and continuous physical presence dates, and the filing procedures. 8 USC 1254a(b)(1); 8 CFR 244.6(a). An application filed before the relevant notice publishes, or outside the period it sets, is not a timely registration. 8 CFR 244.7(b). For that reason the notice, rather than any general description of the program, is the document to work from.

The forms. Registration and re-registration are both made on an Application for Temporary Protected Status, filed in accordance with the form instructions and the country notice. 8 CFR 244.6(a), 244.7(a). A request for an Employment Authorization Document is made on an Application for Employment Authorization, which may be filed together with the Application for Temporary Protected Status or separately at a later date. 8 CFR 244.6(b). Online filing of an Application for Temporary Protected Status is available for applicants under current designations. Biometrics are ordinarily required, for identity verification, background checks and production of the document.

Fees, and the change in the fee rules. A fee is payable on registration as prescribed for the program. 8 USC 1254a(c)(1)(B); 8 CFR 244.6(a), 244.7(c). The statutory fee provision has been rewritten to raise the ceiling on that fee, to index it for inflation, and to provide that fees required under it may neither be waived nor reduced. 8 USC 1254a(c)(1)(B). The regulations and the agency's own filing guidance have not been fully conformed to that amendment and still refer in places to fee waivers, so the current form instructions and the country notice should be checked before any assumption is made about what is payable or waivable.

While the application is pending. An applicant who establishes a prima facie case of eligibility is given temporary treatment benefits until the application is decided, and those benefits include employment authorization. 8 USC 1254a(a)(4); 8 CFR 244.5, 244.10(a). The employment authorization category for an applicant in that position is 8 CFR 274a.12(c)(19), and the document issued is valid for one year or the remainder of the country's designation, whichever is shorter. 8 CFR 244.5(d). There is no appeal from a refusal of temporary treatment benefits, although a refusal before the registration period opens does not prejudice a later application filed within it. 8 CFR 244.5(a), (c).

Work authorization once the status is granted. Employment authorization is not a discretionary favor attached to TPS; the statute requires that it be granted and that it last for as long as the status does. 8 USC 1254a(a)(1)(B), (a)(2). The category for a person who holds TPS is 8 CFR 274a.12(a)(12). The document itself, however, is issued for one year or for the remainder of the designation, whichever is shorter, and must be renewed if the designation continues beyond it. 8 CFR 244.12(a).

The document, the work authorization and the status are three different things. The grant of TPS is the protection. The work authorization follows from it by operation of statute. The Employment Authorization Document is only evidence of that authorization and carries its own expiration date. A card that has expired does not establish that the protection has ended, and a card still within its validity period does not establish that the protection remains in force, since status can be withdrawn independently of the document. 8 CFR 244.12(b).

Automatic extension of a document comes from the notice, not from filing. Under the current employment authorization regulation, filing a renewal request does not by itself extend an expiring document; any automatic extension of TPS-related employment documentation depends on what the applicable Federal Register notice provides. 8 CFR 274a.13(e). Because the practice here has changed more than once, the length and existence of any automatic extension should be read out of the operative notice rather than assumed.

Re-registration is what keeps the status alive. Initial registration obtains TPS. Keeping it requires registering again, annually, and in practice during the re-registration period announced in the notice extending the designation. 8 CFR 244.17. The regulation frames the obligation as registering within the thirty days before the end of each twelve-month period following the grant. 8 CFR 244.14(a)(3). Failure to register annually without good cause is a ground for withdrawal, and the agency must give thirty days to supply evidence of good cause before withdrawing on that basis. 8 USC 1254a(c)(3)(C); 8 CFR 244.14(b)(1). A late re-registration may be accepted where good cause is shown and explained, though a late filing risks a gap in work authorization. Missing a re-registration period is the commonest way in which protection is lost.

Late initial registration. A person who did not register during the original period may still be able to file for the first time during a later extension, if during the original period that person held certain other statuses, had certain applications pending, was a parolee or had a pending request for reparole, or was the spouse or child of someone then eligible to register. The late application must be filed within sixty days after the qualifying condition ends. 8 CFR 244.2(f)(2), (g). Late initial filing relieves only the timing requirement; every other eligibility requirement must still be met.

Withdrawal of an individual grant. TPS may be withdrawn at any time if the person was not in fact eligible when it was granted or has since become ineligible, if the person has not remained continuously physically present in the United States since the grant, or if the person fails without good cause to register annually. 8 USC 1254a(c)(3); 8 CFR 244.14(a). Departure after obtaining permission to travel does not count as a failure to maintain continuous physical presence. 8 CFR 244.14(a)(2).

Travel requires prior consent, and the grant of TPS is not consent. A person holding TPS may travel abroad only with the prior consent of the Department. 8 USC 1254a(f)(3); 8 CFR 244.15(a). Consent is requested on an Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records. A person who already holds TPS and is granted consent receives Form I-512T, an authorization for travel, and is inspected and admitted into TPS on return if found eligible. An applicant whose Application for Temporary Protected Status is still pending receives instead Form I-512L, an advance parole document. The regulation still describes this subject in terms of advance parole and has not been conformed to that practice, which is a further reason to work from current agency instructions. 8 CFR 244.15. Departing without prior consent may result in withdrawal of the status. 8 CFR 244.15(b).

When a designation ends. On termination of a country's designation, those holding TPS lose it automatically, without further notice and without any right of appeal, on the sixtieth day after the termination notice is published or on the last day of the most recent extension, whichever applies. 8 CFR 244.19. Termination reaches documentation issued or renewed after the effective date of the notice, and the Secretary may allow a transition period. 8 USC 1254a(d)(3). A person whose protection ends in this way reverts to whatever immigration status was held before TPS, if any, and to none if there was none. The decision to terminate a designation is itself insulated from judicial review by statute, although the manner in which such decisions are reached has been litigated repeatedly and the case law continues to develop. 8 USC 1254a(b)(5)(A).

Denial, appeal and a second look before an immigration judge. A denial must be in writing and must state the reasons. Where an appeal lies, it goes to the Administrative Appeals Office. Where the denial rests on a ground that makes the person removable or inadmissible, a charging document is issued with the decision, there is no administrative appeal, and eligibility for TPS is instead determined afresh in removal proceedings before an immigration judge, with a further appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. 8 CFR 244.10(c), 244.11. Renewal before an immigration judge cannot extend protection beyond the termination of the country's designation. 8 CFR 244.11.

TPS does not lead to permanent residence. For purposes of adjustment of status under INA 245 and change of status under INA 248, a person holding TPS is deemed to be in, and maintaining, lawful status as a nonimmigrant. 8 USC 1254a(f)(4). That provision is narrower than it sounds. In Sanchez v. Mayorkas, 141 S. Ct. 1809 (2021), the Supreme Court held that a grant of TPS is not an admission, so a person who entered the United States without inspection does not become eligible to adjust status under INA 245(a) merely by holding TPS, and TPS does not cure an earlier failure to maintain lawful status. A beneficiary who travels with prior consent and is inspected and admitted on return is in a different position. The analysis depends closely on the manner of entry and on the travel history in the individual case.

What TPS is not. TPS is not asylum, not withholding of removal, and not protection under the Convention Against Torture; those rest on individualized risk and can lead to lasting status, while TPS rests on country conditions alone. It is not a visa and gives no right to enter the United States. 8 USC 1254a(c)(5). It is not Deferred Enforced Departure, which rests on presidential authority rather than on this statute. Filing for TPS neither strengthens nor prejudices an application for any other benefit, and each must be qualified for on its own terms.

Related pages. For the framework governing designations, the difference between Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure, and the reasons this subject changes so frequently, see Temporary Protection. The current designations, the country notices and the filing addresses are maintained on the USCIS Temporary Protected Status page. Questions about registration, an approaching re-registration period, travel, or the effect of Temporary Protected Status on other immigration options may be raised through the contact page.