The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed that more than 100,000 citizens of Ukraine and roughly 1,800 citizens of Sudan whose Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was due to lapse on 19 October will **not** lose their right to live and work in the United States—for now. In a terse written statement issued late Monday, the department said only that “an announcement will be made at the appropriate time” and that covered nationals “retain protection” in the interim. No details were provided on how long the reprieve will last or whether existing employment-authorization documents remain valid. The move marks a last-minute extension of humanitarian protections that were first granted to Ukrainians in April 2022—two months after Russia’s full-scale invasion—and have been renewed twice since. Sudan received its original TPS designation in 1997 because of protracted armed conflict and political instability. Immigration advocates had been warning for weeks that a failure to extend the program would place tens of thousands of workers and families in legal limbo and force employers to re-verify work authorization on short notice. Business immigration counsel say the lack of clarity poses real-world headaches for companies that employ TPS holders. “Until DHS publishes the Federal Register notice, HR departments have no definitive guidance on I-9 reverification or how to treat expiring EAD cards,” explained Maria Otero, a partner with Fragomen in Miami. Past TPS extensions have included automatic 180-day EAD renewals; without that language employers risk inadvertent hiring-document violations that carry civil fines. For affected individuals, the stakes are existential. Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope For Ukraine, told the Associated Press that DHS is applying “band-aid solutions” instead of providing a pathway to permanence: “These families have built lives here; they cannot safely return to Ukraine.” Critics of the TPS program, including the Center for Immigration Studies, counter that repeated renewals transform what was meant as temporary relief into de facto long-term residency. Corporate mobility managers should track the Federal Register closely—any forthcoming notice will clarify automatic EAD extensions, re-registration periods, and the ultimate sunset date. In the meantime, employers are advised to refrain from terminating staff whose TPS documents appear to have expired and to document good-faith compliance efforts.
Source: Associated Press
