DHS to Terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nepal

On April 26, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nepal, now the fifth country to recently lose its protected status. The termination will go into effect on June 24, 2019, according to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. TPS is a type of temporary protection given to individuals who are already present in the U.S. and who are from countries experiencing issues that make it unsafe for them to return.  TPS permits individuals to remain in the U.S. temporarily, work in the U.S., and sometimes, to travel abroad during their TPS status.

This decision affects nearly 9,000 Nepalese citizens, who were allowed to remain in the U.S. with work authorization and protection from deportation following a devastating earthquake in 2015.

Nepal will be the fifth country to lose its protected status under the Trump Administration, following termination of TPS for Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador. The DHS has announced that it is examining whether to terminate Honduras’s status; that decision will likely be announced by July 2018.

Nepalese citizens with TPS who are unable to change their status to another lawful status will no longer be shielded from deportation and will lose their employment authorization on June 24, 2019.

For more information about the TPS program, see our previous blogs.

If you have a question about how the cancellation of TPS will affect you, your family, or your business, please schedule a consultation with our attorneys.