TPS Syria Extended and Redesignated for 18 Months; Certain EADs Automatically Extended Through March 31, 2025
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended and redesignated Syria for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from April 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025.
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 for Syria. They may provide a TPS Employment Authorization Document (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.
Given the time frames for processing TPS re-registration applications, USCIS has automatically extended through March 31, 2025, the validity of EADs with a Card Expires date of March 31, 2024; Sept. 30, 2022; or March 31, 2021, issued under the prior TPS designation of Syria. TPS Syria applicants or beneficiaries presenting an auto-extended EAD do not need to show any other document, such as a Form I-797 or I-797C, Notice of Action, to prove that they qualify for the EAD auto-extension.
SAVE will be able to verify an individual’s TPS or pending TPS application (and any employment authorization) using information from any documents noted above. In some instances, the benefit-granting agency may need to institute additional verification to do so.
For more information regarding Syria’s TPS extension and redesignation, please refer to 89 FR 5562, dated Jan. 29, 2024.
For up-to-date information, please check uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status or call the USCIS TPS Hotline at 202-272-1533. (Please note that this is not a toll-free number.)