Temporary Protected Status for Yemen Re-Registration Period Now Open
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries under Yemen’s designation who wish to maintain their status through the extension date of March 3, 2020 must do so between August 14, 2018 and October 15, 2018. All applicants must submit Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status, and if they choose to request an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) must submit Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization either when filing the Form I-821 or separately at a later date. Yemen TPS beneficiaries who re-register and apply for EADs in a timely manner will receive new EADs with a March 3, 2020 expiration date from USCIS. Due to timeframe limitations involved with TPS re-registration processing, not all re-registrants will receive their new EADs prior to the September 3, 2018 expiration date of their current EADs. Therefore, the validity of EADs has been automatically extended for 180 days, through March 2, 2019.
Re-registration procedures, as well ad downloadable versions of the forms are available at uscis.gov/tps.
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USCIS Issues Revised Final Guidance on Unlawful Presence for Students and Exchange Visitors
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released a final policy memorandum regarding unlawful presence after reviewing the feedback it received during the 30-day public comment period which ended June 11, 2018. F and M nonimmigrants, under the final policy which took effect August 9, 2018, who fall out of status and file for reinstatement of that status in a timely manner will have their accrual of unlawful presence suspended during the pending period of their application. On May 10, 2018, USCIS released a policy memorandum announcing it would change the manner by which the agency calculates unlawful presence for individuals in F, J, or M nonimmigrant statuses. The final policy memorandum takes precedence over the May 10 policy memorandum, describing the rules for counting unlawful presence for F and M nonimmigrants with either approved or timely-filed reinstatement applications, in addition to J nonimmigrants who were reinstated by the Department of State.
With regard to counting unlawful presence, a timely reinstatement application for F or M status in one in which the student has been out of status for no more than five months at the time of filing. Under the final policy memorandum, when an F or M nonimmigrant files a reinstatement application within that five-month window, there is a suspension of unlawful presence accrual. This suspension is also applicable to the period of time during which the application is pending with USCIS. Immigration lawyers point out, however, that many people will be ineligible to use the reinstatement process to fix their issues.
In the event the reinstatement application is denied, accrual of unlawful presence begins on the day following the denial. It is the responsibility of the nonimmigrant to leave the United States voluntarily or more unlawful presence would be accrued, which could result in later inadmissibility. Generally, regardless of the timeliness of filing of the application for reinstatement, an F, J, or M nonimmigrant application for reinstatement which is ultimately approved will not result in accrued unlawful presence for the individual while out of status. The J-1 exchange visitor program is administered by the Department of State to include reinstatement requests. If the reinstatement application is approved, the J nonimmigrant will not accrue unlawful presence for the time between falling out of status and reinstatement.
For more information, view the USCIS announcement.
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