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DHS Vacates the Extension of Venezuela’s TPS Designation

29 Jan

On January 28, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would vacate the January 17, 2025 notice made under the Biden administration to extend the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Venezuela.  

Kristi Noem, the new DHS Secretary under the Trump administration, took the position that the Biden administration improperly combined the Venezuela 2021 designation and the 2023 redesignation to provide a single extension until October 2, 2026 for both designations. Such action, the new DHS Secretary argued, lacked clarity and caused confusion by including “multiple notices, overlapping populations, overlapping dates, and sometimes multiple actions happening in a single document.” 

As a result of the vacatur, DHS must determine by February 1, 2025 whether to extend or terminate the 2023 Venezuela TPS designation and must determine by July 12, 2025 whether to extend or terminate the 2021 Venezuela TPS designation. USCIS will therefore provide additional guidance regarding the two Venezuela TPS designations on a future date. If DHS does not make a timely determination on either designation, then the law provides for an automatic extension of the designation for an additional period of six (6) months. 

Pursuant to this vacatur, USCIS will no longer accept Venezuela TPS re-registration applications (Form 1-821) and associated Applications for Employment Authorization (Form 1-765) filed under the Biden administration’s January 17, 2025 notice. For TPS beneficiaries who have already filed applications to re-register and paid any fees associated with their applications, USCIS will cease processing their applications and will issue refunds of any fees paid. Additionally, USCIS will invalidate all TPS-related documents, including Forms I-94 and Employment Authorization Documents (EAD), that have already been issued with October 2, 2026 expiration dates.   

Foster continues to follow developments impacting immigration benefits and will provide additional information as it becomes available via future Immigration Updates© and on our firm’s website at www.fosterglobal.com.