subject: Uscis Announces 18-month Extension Of Temporary Protected Status For El Salvador [print this page] U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently made a proclamation that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has intended to extend the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for eligible EI Salvador nationals. The expiration date has been extended from Sept. 9, 2010 to March 9, 2012.
The conditions in EI Salvador were inspected last year by DHS with the help of the Department of State. From the review, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of State was able to conclude that Salvadoran TPS has to be extended for another 18 months. The reason for this being, the conditions that impelled the 2001 TPS for EI Salvador still persists and is temporarily restraining Salvador nationals from going back to their country.
Individuals who already secure a TPS can re-register and thereby extend their TPS for another 18 months through this extension. It has been estimated that nearly 217,000 nationals of EI Salvador are eligible for the re-registration. This Temporary Protected Status extension is not applicable to those Salvadoran nationals who immigrated into the United States after Feb. 13, 2001. Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries ought to re-register between July 9 and Sept. 7, 2010, after which they will be rejected. As USCIS needs some time to proceed with background checking and processing, the Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries are required to re-register immediately after the re-registration period begins.
A new Employment Authorization Document (EAD) will be issued by USCIS to eligible TPS beneficiaries soon after they re-register and apply for their EADs. Further, the validity period of the current EADs will be extended automatically by USCIS till March 9, 2011 (6 months)
Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status has to be filed by eligible TPS beneficiaries if they want to re-register. Applicants who want to extend their EADs are obliged to file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization with the processing fee. Those applicants who only want to re-register for TPS may not pay the filing fee, but have to file Form I-765.
