Temporary protected status (TPS) is the name used to denote the existence of temporary protection for people from countries that have been affected by natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. The temporary protected status gives affected people from those countries a way to apply for an employment authorization document in the U.S. It also prevents deportation to their countries, as they would not be able to relocate.

Once the president makes the designation of a country for temporary protected status, people from that country that were in the US prior to the designation (or in some cases even prior to the natural disaster) are allowed to participate in this program.

People who arrived in the United States after the designation of the country would not be eligible to apply. One of the reasons is because after a country has been designated for temporary protected status, you don’t want to have a massive movement of people from that country to the United States. So normally, the person has to be in the United States at the time or prior to the designation. Another group of people who would not be able to qualify for temporary protected status are any people with felony convictions or with two or more misdemeanors.

To apply for a temporary protected status, a person has to file an application with USCIS, the immigration office here in the United States. They have to show that they are from the country that has been designated for TPS. They also have to show proof that they were in the United States prior to the designation, which can be done by providing bank account statements, receipts, pay stubs, tax returns, etc.

The fee for temporary protected status is $360, plus $80 for the biometric clause and $50 for the application fee.

The application for temporary protected status has to be sent to the United States office for immigration that has jurisdiction over the person’s state. It needs to be sent to a certain place depending on which state you are in. The last thing that needs to be checked is the address of where it’s going to be sent, because it changes all the time.

At this time, the countries that have a designation under TPS are El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Normally, the designation for a country is about 18 months, but the president is the one who normally decides. This year, when the president re-designated Haiti, he only did it for six months. So, it’s usually about 18 months but on rare occasions it can be less.

A person can stay in the United States for as long as their country continues to be re-designated. For example, people from Central America or Honduras were designated for temporary protection status for the first time in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch hit Central America.