Immigration Defense

A CFR Home for Good Initiative:
Advocating for Non-Citizen Families

Temporary Protected Status

On March 8th, the Department of Homeland Security added Venezuela to the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) list. This means that any Venezeulan national who can prove they’ve been in the U.S. since March 7th, may apply for TPS, receive a work permit, and protection from deportation. They can apply for TPS even if they’ve been ordered deported by an immigration judge.

TPS is a humanitarian immigration benefit that is premised on extraordinary and temporary conditions in the designated country, including political unrest or civil war, natural disasters, or health issues. Some of the more recent TPS designations that may be known about include Syria due to their civil war, a few West African countries due to the ebola pandemic, and a few Central American countries due to past civil wars and major hurricanes.

To qualify for TPS, Venezeulan nationals must apply starting March 9th or no later than September 5th, 2021 or else they are ineligible.

Read CFR’s TPS factsheet here. En Español