TPS Afghanistan Extended and Redesignated for 18 Months; EADs Automatically Extended Through Nov. 20, 2024
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended and redesignated Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from Nov. 21, 2023, through May 20, 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 Afghanistan. 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 Nov. 20, 2024, the validity of EADs with a Card Expires date of Nov. 20, 2023, issued under the prior TPS designation of Afghanistan. TPS Afghanistan 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 (and employment authorization) 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 Afghanistan’s TPS extension and redesignation, please refer to 88 FR 65728, dated Sept. 25, 2023.
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.)