Due to the violent upheaval and deteriorating situation in the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that eligible Syrian nationals (and persons without nationality who last habitually resided in Syria) in the United States may apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
The TPS designation for Syria is effective today and will remain in effect through September 30, 2013. The designation means that eligible Syrian nationals will not be removed ("deported") from the United States, and may request employment authorization ("work permit"). The 180-day TPS registration period begins today and ends on September 25, 2012. Although the Federal Register notice erroneously states that TPS applications must be filed March 29, 2012 through September 30, 2013, USCIS will only accept applications filed through September 25, 2012. They have made mistakes in stating filing deadlines before, most recently for the El Salvador TPS that ended March 12, 2012 but was initially incorrectly stated to end March 9, 2012.
To be eligible for TPS, Syrians must meet all individual requirements for TPS, including demonstrating that they have continually resided and been continually physically present in the United States since March 29, 2012. All individuals who apply for TPS will undergo a thorough security check. The USCIS website states that "Individuals with criminal records or who pose a threat to national security are not eligible for TPS and their applications will be denied." That is a bit exaggerated. TPS applicants are ineligible if they have been convicted of 2 or more misdemeanors or 1 felony. So a conviction for 1 misdemeanor although it would constitute a criminal records does not bar eligibility for TPS.
Syria joins El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan as countries currently designated for TPS. The Department of State did not designate Japan for TPS even though it underwent that horrific earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown.
Details and procedures for applying for TPS are provided in the Federal Register notice published today and are available at www.uscis.gov/tps.
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