Extension and Re-Designation Allows Additional Eligible Yemenis to Apply for TPS and Employment Authorization Documents
WASHINGTON – Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced an 18-month extension and re-designation of Yemen for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). This extension and re-designation will be in effect from September 4, 2021, through March 3, 2023.
“Yemen continues to experience worsening humanitarian and economic conditions that prevent individuals from safely returning to their homes,” said Secretary Mayorkas. “Therefore, I have decided to extend and re-designate Yemen for Temporary Protected Status. We will continue to protect and offer these individuals a place of residency temporarily in the United States.”
Secretary Mayorkas made this decision to extend and re-designate Yemen for TPS after consultation with interagency partners and careful consideration of the ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Yemen, including lack of access to food, water, and healthcare; large-scale destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure; significant population displacement; an ongoing cholera outbreak since 2016; and the COVID-19 pandemic’s worsening of a dire economic and humanitarian situation. These conditions prevent Yemeni nationals and habitual residents from returning to Yemen safely.
The extension of Yemen for TPS allows approximately 1,700 current beneficiaries to retain TPS through March 3, 2023, as long as they meet TPS eligibility requirements. The re-designation of TPS for Yemen allows an estimated 480 additional Yemeni nationals (or individuals having no nationality who last habitually resided in Yemen) who have been continuously residing in the United States since July 5, 2021, and have been continuously physically present in the United States since September 4, 2021, to file initial applications to obtain TPS, if they are otherwise eligible.
Current beneficiaries re-registering under the extension of TPS for Yemen should re-register in a timely manner during the 60-day registration period.
Under the re-designation of Yemen, eligible individuals who do not have TPS may submit an initial Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status, during the initial registration period that will run from the publication date of the Federal Register notice, through the full length of the re-designation period ending March 3, 2023. Applicants are also eligible to apply for TPS-related Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) and for travel authorization.
A Federal Register notice explaining the procedures necessary to re-register or submit an initial registration application and apply for an EAD will be published shortly.