Visa Lawyer Blog
On September 23, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that current beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under Syria’s designation, who want to maintain their status through March 31, 2021, must re-register between Sept. 23 and Nov. 22, 2019.
All applicants must submit Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status and request an EAD by submitting Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, when they file Form I-821 or separately at a later date.
USCIS will issue new EADs with a March 31, 2021 expiration date to eligible beneficiaries under Syria’s TPS designation who timely re-register and apply for EADs.
Given the timeframe involved with processing TPS re-registration applications, however, USCIS recognizes that not all re-registrants will receive new EADs before their current EADs expire on September 30, 2019. Accordingly, USCIS has automatically extended the validity of these EADs for 180 days, through March 28, 2020.
This automatic extension also extends to individuals who applied for a new EAD during the last re-registration period because their EADs were expiring on March 31, 2018 but have not yet received their new EAD.
The extension was granted after Acting Secretary McAleenan announced that the statutory conditions supporting Syria’s TPS designation continue to exist and are made on the basis of ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary conditions. As a result of these conditions, Syria’s TPS designation has been extended through March 31, 2021.
Re-registration procedures, including how to renew employment authorization documents (EADs), have been published in the Federal Register and are available at uscis.gov/tps.