Approximately 335 of the 7,000 Syrians in the United States with temporary protected status, known as TPS, who had already applied to retain their status will have their work authorizations automatically extended six months to March, according to a letter sent to recipients obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner.
The Department of Homeland Security will give new work documents to all recipients from Syria who have pending applications to continue living and working in the U.S. though the end of the program in September 2019. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced in January that the program — which offers protections from deportation and legal permission to work in the U.S. for Syrians and nationals of nine other countries who are in the U.S. — would end Sept. 30, 2019.
A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official shared with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday a copy of the letter sent to 335 people who are in the program. The Automatic Employment Authorization Document Extension was announced in letters mailed Sept. 12. Recipients will be allowed to work through March 26.
USCIS said the extension is a technical correction that was made in order to align the final end date of work documents with the TPS program’s potential cut-off: Sept. 30, 2019.
Beneficiaries had been told they could re-apply for an extension to remain here through that date. Those who had applied for an extension had not received an answer yet from the federal government and would have lost their ability to legally work in the country as of Sept. 27.
A Federal Register notice issued March 5 stated people would have six months to ask for an automatic extension to work in the U.S., known as an employment authorization document, or EAD.
Now those with pending applications who would have lost their ability to work will automatically be protected for the next 180 days.
Specifically, people whose work protections were supposed to end March 31 of this year who had applied for an extension after March 5, as well as those whose work papers expired Sept. 30, 2016, but who applied for an extension after Aug. 6, 2016, are eligible for the extension.
USCIS is in the process of sending new employment authorization documents to people but has already mailed letters to let them know of the extension, the official confirmed.
DHS originally granted temporary protected status to the group of Syrians due to continuing armed conflict and “extraordinary and temporary conditions” in the country.
The same courtesy extension was recently extended for recipients from Haiti and El Salvador, whose TPS programs were set to conclude in 2019.
Since the fall, DHS has said it will conclude temporary protected status programs for Nepal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Somalia, and Honduras.
However, Nielsen announced an 18-month extension for the temporary protected status program for Syria, South Sudan, and Yemen.
