Temporary Protected Status

Temporary Protected Status allows nationals of designated countries to live and work in the United States when conditions at home make return unsafe. It is granted by country and by time period, and it has always been, by design, temporary.

What has changed

Most designations have been terminated. Only a small number of countries retain TPS, and the Supreme Court held in 2026 that the government's termination decisions are largely not reviewable by courts.

We are not listing countries and dates on this page, because that list changes and a stale list is worse than none. Call us and we will tell you where your country stands today.

If your status has ended

When TPS ends, you generally revert to whatever status you held before, which for many people is none. Work authorization tied to TPS stops being valid, and employers are required to reverify.

That is a serious situation. You may still have options.

Most people who held TPS have been here a long time, and those years often create options that did not exist when they arrived. A marriage. A U.S. citizen child who has come of age. A crime they reported. An asylum claim based on conditions that changed back home. A route through an employer.

The question now is what else you may qualify for. Answering it takes someone looking at your whole history.

A warning

Times like this bring out people who charge money for help they cannot provide. Notarios and consultants are not lawyers and cannot represent you. Before you pay anyone, confirm they are licensed to practice law or accredited by the Department of Justice.