United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published an announcement in the Federal Register on November 4, 2019, that it has automatically extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for beneficiaries from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan through January 4, 2021.

This extension applies to any Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) issued pursuant to TPS, as well as any I-94 records and I-797 Notices of Action (Approval Notices). This extension was issued in response to the ongoing litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Ramos v. Nielsen, which has resulted in a preliminary injunction against the termination of TPS for those countries.

For employers who need to reverify expiring work authorization documents in compliance with I-9 rules, the following steps are required:

1. Employees must draw a line through the expiration date of work authorization in Section 1 and write “January 4, 2021” above that. Employees should initial/date the correction.
2. Employers should confirm that the EAD is auto-extended. An employee’s EAD has been auto-extended if it has a category code of “A-12” or “C-19” and one of the following expiration dates:
   • 07/22/2017
   • 11/02/2017
   • 01/05/2018
   • 01/22/2018
   • 03/09/2018
   • 06/24/2018
   • 07/05/2018
   • 11/02/2018
   • 01/05/2019
   • 04/02/2019
   • 06/24/2019
   • 07/22/2019
   • 09/09/2019
   • 01/02/2020
   • 01/05/2020
   • 03/24/2020
3. Employers should then draw a line through the expiration date in Section 2 and write “January 4, 2021” above that. The employer representative should initial/date the correction.

All employers are required to ensure that there is a compliant Form I-9 on file for every employee hired after November 6, 1986. Re-verifying expiring temporary work authorization (including EADs issued as part of TPS) is part of that compliance. For further information on the TPS auto-extension rules, review the latest notice in the Federal Register.

The Faegre Baker Daniels immigration and global mobility team will continue to monitor these issues and will provide additional guidance when available.