The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that it will be officially cancelling Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of individuals from Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nepal. The cancellation of TPS for these individuals means that the TPS-based work authorization for these individuals will also be cancelled. Employers are able to identify which individuals hold TPS-based work authorization as they hold an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) bearing a category code A12 or C19 and which lists a country of birth from one of the affected countries.
See below for guidance on where to locate the category code on an EAD:
Image Courtesy of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - Handbook for Employers M-274"
The recently announced TPS EAD cancellation dates are:
- Honduran TPS EADs with category codes of A12 or C19 bearing an expiration date of July 5, 2025; June 30, 2024; December 31, 2022; October 4, 2021; January 4, 2021; January 5, 2020; July 5, 2018; or January 5, 2018, expired on September 8, 2025.
- Nicaraguan TPS EADs with a category code of A12 or C19 bearing an expiration date of July 5, 2025; June 30, 2024; December 31, 2022; October 4, 2021; January 4, 2021; January 2, 2020; April 2, 2019; January 5, 2019; or January 5, 2018, expired on September 8, 2025.
- Venezuelan TPS EADs with category codes A12 or C19 bearing an expiration date of September 9, 2022; March 10, 2024; April 2, 2025; September 10, 2025; or October 2, 2026, will expire on November 7, 2025.
- Nepalese TPS EADs with a category code of A12 or C19 expired on August 20, 2025.
Employers should immediately determine if any of their current employees are affected by these cancellations. To help verify the termination of the TPS EADs of potentially affected employees, employers enrolled in E-Verify may run a "Status Change Report" (the "Report") within E-Verify. The new E-Verify Status Change Report will allow E-Verify employers to review their aggregated case data for any employees who presented an EAD for employment verification which has now been revoked by DHS.
Instructions to Access the Status Change Report:
- Log in to your E-Verify account and click on the "Reports" tab at the top of the homepage.
- Select the new Status Change Report.
- Click "Run Report."
- Choose a revocation date from the list in the Revocation Date field to narrow the report to EADs revoked on a specific date (optional).
- If no date is selected, the report will include data for all affected cases across all revocation dates.
- After making your selection, click "Generate Report."
- Wait for the "Report Creation Successful" banner to appear in E-Verify.
- Download the report as a CSV file to view the data.
The Report contains the document revocation date, case number and a number for each affected case. Employers enrolled in E-Verify should regularly run and review Status Change Reports to stay abreast of any current or future employment authorization cancellations that may affect their employees.
Employers not enrolled in E-Verify should check their Form I-9 files to review the status of any EAD cards presented for employment authorization. Employers who have not kept copies of the work authorization documentation presented for Form I-9 purposes will have to cross-check the expiration date of an employee's work authorization status against the above-listed dates to determine if they may have an employee affected by the TPS EAD cancellations.
All employers should continue to check the USCIS website and E-Verify website for additional information, as ongoing and new litigation in the federal courts may still result in sudden and frequent changes to the status of TPS for individuals from Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Nepal, as well as other countries.
Employers who have an employee whose TPS EAD has been cancelled and who utilized the TPS EAD to complete their Form I-9 must immediately cease or suspend the employment of that employee the day after their TPS EAD work authorization has been cancelled, unless the employee can complete Form I-9 reverification using Supplement B of the current Form I-9 on or before the day after their TPS EAD was cancelled.
To complete Form I-9 verification, the affected employee must provide unexpired documentation from either List A or List C of the Form I-9 List of Acceptable Documents. Employers should not reverify identity documents (List B) unless there are substantial reasons to doubt the identity of the employee. Employers enrolled in E-Verify should not create a new E-Verify case for affected employees. Employees must be allowed to independently choose which acceptable documentation to present for reverification. However, employers must not accept a cancelled TPS EAD for reverification purposes.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
