Executive Summary
- TPS has been terminated for multiple countries since mid-2025. For some, termination is fully in effect. For others, court orders have paused termination, but those stays can be lifted.
- What HR needs to do depends entirely on which country an employee is from and whether their EAD has expired.
- The time to act is before work authorization runs out. For many employees, that window is already narrow.
What TPS is and why it matters to HR
Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian designation that allows nationals from certain countries to live and work legally in the United States. TPS holders receive an Employment Authorization Document, or EAD, that authorizes them to work for any employer.
From an HR perspective, a TPS employee looks like any other worker. They have an EAD, complete an I-9, and do their jobs. The difference is that their work authorization is tied to a government designation that can be revoked. Since mid-2025, that has been happening at scale.
How to identify a TPS employee's EAD
Look at the "Category" field on the face of the EAD card. TPS EADs show one of two codes:
- A-12: TPS has been granted
- C-19: TPS application is pending
Both codes are valid for I-9 purposes. If you see either code on an employee's EAD, their work authorization is tied to TPS and subject to everything covered in this guide.
TPS has ended for your employee
This section applies to employees from Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Venezuela.
What if their EAD has already expired
If an employee's EAD expired and it was based solely on TPS from one of these countries, their work authorization has ended. There is no TPS-based renewal available for terminated designations. USCIS will not process a new application.
Continuing to employ someone after their work authorization has lapsed creates a compliance risk for the company. This is not a situation to wait and see on.
What HR should do immediately:
- Confirm through the I-9 that the employee has no other basis for work authorization
- Do not make an employment decision based on the employee's country of origin alone. Verify the actual authorization status first.
- Engage an immigration advisor to assess whether any other work authorization category applies to this specific employee before taking action
What if their EAD has not yet expired
The employee has valid work authorization through the EAD expiration date. Once it expires, there is no TPS-based renewal. The question is how much time is left and how to use it.
If the EAD is expiring within the next 90 days
This is urgent. The process of pursuing an alternative visa takes time. Expect weeks at minimum, often months. Starting now gives the best chance of a seamless transition before work authorization ends.
What HR should do:
- Have an immediate conversation with the employee about their situation and what the company is willing to do
- Engage an immigration advisor now to assess what alternative visa categories the employee may qualify for
- If the company is willing to sponsor, begin that process without delay
- For Venezuelan employees: confirm whether the EAD falls under the Oct 2, 2026 extended validity. If so, there is more runway, but the conversation still needs to happen now.
If the EAD is not expiring soon
There is more time, but not unlimited time. The TPS designation is gone and renewal is not available. The EAD will eventually expire, and there is no automatic extension coming for these countries.
What HR should do:
- Schedule a conversation with the employee in the near term. They should know where things stand.
- Note the EAD expiration date on your tracking system and set a 90-day flag
- Begin an informal assessment of what alternative options may exist for this employee
- Do not treat a distant expiration date as someone else's problem. Immigration processes take time to start and complete.
What HR should do now and how to plan for the future
The three things that matter most for this group:
- Know every expiration date. Pull the EAD dates for all employees from terminated countries and sort them by urgency. This tells you where to focus first.
- Do not wait to have the conversation. Employees from terminated TPS countries deserve to know their situation. The earlier HR raises this, the more options exist for both sides.
- Set a standing calendar review. TPS litigation can move quickly. A ruling that seemed irrelevant last month can change the landscape. Review your TPS employee list quarterly at minimum.
TPS has ended but is on hold for your employee
This section applies to employees from Haiti, Syria, Ethiopia, Burma (Myanmar), South Sudan, and Somalia.
These employees currently have valid work authorization. A federal court has paused the TPS termination while litigation continues. For HR, the practical status right now is that these employees can work normally.
The risk is that the stay could be lifted. If that happens, the termination takes effect and the employee's work authorization situation changes quickly.
How to prepare yourself and the employee
The most useful thing HR can do right now is make sure both you and the employee understand the situation clearly. The goal is not to create alarm, but to ensure no one is caught off guard if a court ruling changes things.
For HR:
- Verify that the employee's EAD is current and, where applicable, that the USCIS automatic extension applies (Ethiopia, Burma, South Sudan received automatic extensions on March 12, 2026)
- Understand that for Haiti and Syria specifically, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in April 2026. This is the most consequential near-term ruling to watch.
- Have a contingency conversation with the employee: "Here is where things stand, here is what we would do if the stay is lifted"
For the employee:
- Make sure they understand the difference between "protected right now" and "permanently protected"
- Encourage them to connect with an immigration advisor to understand what options exist, independent of what the courts decide
- If they have family members also on TPS from the same country, the family situation should be part of that advisor conversation
How to keep yourself up to date
The TPS situation is in active litigation across multiple federal courts. No single source updates in real time, but these are the most reliable places to track developments:
- USCIS TPS page (uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status): updated when official changes occur. This is the authoritative source.
- Your immigration advisor: for companies with immigration counsel or a service like WayLit, a direct alert when a relevant ruling drops is more reliable than monitoring news sources.
- Federal court dockets: for teams that want primary source tracking, the key cases are in D. Mass., N.D. Ill., and D.D.C. The Haiti and Syria cases are now at the Supreme Court.
Do not rely on employee self-reporting or general news coverage as your primary tracking method. Rulings can drop on short notice and the coverage is not always accurate.
What HR should do now and how to plan for the future
- Treat "on hold" as "not resolved." The stay is good news, not a final answer. Plan as if the stay could be lifted within the next few months.
- Do not let EADs lapse unnoticed. Even with automatic extensions, EAD documentation needs to reflect the extension. Verify that each employee has the documentation they need to show work authorization.
- Have the contingency ready. For your highest-value employees in this group, the conversation about alternative visa options should happen now, not after a court ruling changes things.
Alternative visa paths to start evaluating
This section is not a specific recommendation. Eligibility depends on each employee's individual situation, and that assessment belongs with an immigration advisor. What HR can do is understand what categories exist and raise them in the right conversations early.
Employer-sponsored work visas
- H-1B is available for specialty occupation roles. It requires the employer to file a petition and is subject to the annual lottery for new cap-subject petitions. If an employee missed the last lottery, the next registration window opens in March 2027.
- O-1 is available for employees with demonstrated extraordinary ability in their field. It has no lottery and can move faster than H-1B, but the bar for eligibility is high.
- L-1 is available if your company has international offices and the employee has worked for the company abroad. This requires real international operations.
Employment-based green card
For employees the company wants to retain long term, a PERM labor certification is the most durable solution. It is a longer process, often 2 to 3 years, but it removes dependence on TPS entirely. Starting early matters significantly here.
A critical limitation HR should know about
TPS is not considered a formal "admission" to the United States under immigration law. This affects whether an employee can change to a new status without leaving the country and re-entering. It is one of the most common reasons TPS transitions are more complicated than they appear on the surface. Every employee's path depends on how and when they entered the US, which is why an individual assessment matters.
Employees who may have other existing status
Some TPS employees have an underlying visa status they entered on, such as a student visa, a prior H-1B, or a family-based green card process already in progress. If that is the case, their situation may be more straightforward than it looks. It is worth asking each employee directly about their full immigration history before assuming TPS is their only option.
TPS that is still valid
These countries have active TPS designations that have not been terminated or challenged by DHS. If your employee is from one of these countries, their work authorization is currently in good standing. Track the expiration dates below, as TPS designations are reviewed periodically and the landscape can change.
What the "Valid Through" date means
The date in the table is the current TPS designation expiration date. It is not a hard end date for your employee's work authorization - but it is a decision point for DHS.
Before the expiration date arrives, the Department of Homeland Security reviews conditions in the designated country and decides whether to extend the designation or terminate it. If DHS extends TPS, it publishes a notice in the Federal Register and USCIS issues guidance on EAD validity. EADs for that country are typically automatically extended, and USCIS specifies how long the extension lasts. The employee's existing EAD card remains valid for work purposes during that extended period.
If DHS terminates TPS instead of extending it, the country moves into the same situation as Honduras, Nepal, and the others in this guide. The termination takes effect on a set date, EADs expire, and HR needs to act.
What HR should do before the date arrives
Do not treat these dates as automatic renewals. The current administration has been terminating TPS designations rather than extending them, and there is no guarantee that any of the countries in this table will be extended.
- Set a 90-day flag before the expiration date for each employee from these countries
- Begin monitoring USCIS announcements as the date approaches. Extensions are published in the Federal Register and on uscis.gov.
- Have a contingency conversation with any employee from this group whose expiration is within 6 months. If the designation is terminated, the window to pursue alternatives is the same as for the countries already terminated. Starting early is the difference between having options and not.
- If you have employees from Yemen or Lebanon specifically, those dates are within weeks. That conversation should happen now.
How WayLit helps
The TPS situation is different for every country and every employee. For HR teams managing multiple affected workers, the work of tracking status, verifying EADs, monitoring litigation, and identifying alternatives is significant.
WayLit's partner immigration practitioners work directly with HR to assess which employees are affected, verify current work authorization status, and identify realistic options for each individual before the situation becomes urgent. WayLit acts as an extension of your HR team, so you are not managing this alone.
- WayLit's platform automatically tracks TPS status, EAD expiration dates, and litigation developments for your workforce. If something changes that affects an employee's authorization, you hear about it before it becomes a problem.
- Our partner immigration practitioners work with affected employees to assess alternative visa options and build a plan for each individual while there is still time to act.
- WayLit works directly with HR leaders to plan ahead for immigration alternatives, so the team is not reacting to court rulings or expiration dates without a path forward already in place.
The window for proactive action is narrow for some employees and closing for others. Starting the assessment now gives every option its best chance.
Common questions from HR teams
An employee told me their TPS is protected by a court order. How do I verify that?
The employee may be correct, but HR should verify independently. Cross-reference the employee's country with the current status table in this article, confirm whether a USCIS automatic EAD extension applies, and review the physical EAD for its expiration date. If there is any uncertainty, work with an immigration advisor to confirm before taking any action.
Can we keep an employee on while we pursue a new visa, even if their EAD has expired?
Generally no. Once work authorization has lapsed, continuing employment creates a compliance risk regardless of whether a new petition is in process. The exception is if the employee has a pending application that provides interim work authorization. That determination needs to be made for each specific case with an immigration advisor.
Should we be talking to employees from countries with court stays about alternatives, even though they are still authorized to work?
Yes. A stay is not permanent protection. Starting the conversation now, when there is no urgency, is far better than having it after a court ruling drops and the clock is running. It does not have to be an alarming conversation. Frame it as making sure the employee has a full picture of their options.
We have an employee from Venezuela. Their EAD says it expires October 2, 2026. Is that still valid?
Yes, if the EAD was issued on or before February 5, 2025. The USCIS guidance confirmed that Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries who meet that condition retain valid work authorization through October 2, 2026. Verify the issue date on the card and document it in the employee's I-9 file.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Immigration law is complex and the TPS situation is actively changing. Consult qualified immigration counsel before making decisions about employees on TPS or any other immigration status.
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