Salvadorans’ TPS and Work Authorization Remain Protected as USCIS Weighs Next Steps

USCIS says Salvadoran beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status retain protection while the agency weighs its next announcement. The scheduled end date, September 9, 2026, has passed, but employers still lack a clear new document rule for I-9 records.

The immediate issue is paperwork, not a USCIS statement ending holders’ protection. The agency says affected Salvadorans remain covered, including their work authorization.

Existing Salvadoran TPS holders remain covered while a decision is pending

The guidance applies to Salvadoran individuals already present in the United States under TPS. It does not open the program to every Salvadoran living in the country, or establish that a person who has not held TPS can newly apply.

USCIS has said it will make an announcement “at the appropriate time.” Until then, the agency’s alert says current holders retain their protection. That statement is not a formal extension with a new end date.

The previous 18-month designation period began March 10, 2025. USCIS lists continuous residence since February 13, 2001, and continuous physical presence since March 9, 2001, among the El Salvador designation dates.

A Congressional Research Service report said no decision notice had appeared in the Federal Register as of the report’s date. USCIS’s El Salvador page later continued to carry its interim alert. The agency has not given a date for its next announcement.

Two published figures do not establish today’s holder count

The figures most often cited describe different groups. Neither provides a verified count of Salvadorans who currently hold TPS.

The first number is an estimate of people eligible to re-register, not a count of current beneficiaries. The second describes Salvadorans who lived and worked legally, without identifying all of them as current TPS holders. The figures cannot be treated as a range or combined into a present-day total.

At the October event, speakers described workers losing jobs, people unable to renew driver’s licenses, and families fearing separation. Dulce Guzmán, executive director of Alianza Americas, said:

“Government inaction is not a victory, and uncertainty is not protection.”

Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) said some Salvadorans in Prince George’s County have spent decades in the community. TPS itself does not automatically give a holder a route to permanent residence, so an individual’s options depend on their circumstances.

The statute does not set a new EAD expiration date

Federal law describes possible paths for a country’s designation, but those provisions do not tell an employer what date to write on an individual employment document. If DHS does not determine that a country no longer qualifies, the designation continues for at least six months; the department may choose a 12- or 18-month period.

If DHS terminates a designation, the law generally bars the termination from taking effect earlier than 60 days after the notice is published. Those statutory timelines do not, by themselves, establish a new expiration date for a worker’s EAD.

That distinction leaves holders and employers with two separate questions: whether the person remains authorized to work, and what evidence can document that status for I-9 purposes. USCIS answers the first through its alert. It has not supplied a new post-deadline EAD date in that alert.

Authorization continues, but I-9 evidence remains a separate problem

Some Salvadoran workers have cards that look expired. Earlier USCIS notices covered specific situations, but they should not be treated as a blanket extension for every holder.

USCIS said certain EADs in categories A12 or C19 were automatically extended through March 9, 2026. Separately, people who met specified conditions and received USCIS notices could use those notices with their cards as evidence through September 9, 2026. Those earlier dates do not create a new validity period after that point.

The USCIS page describes the earlier notice-based arrangements. It does not give employers a new general expiration date or a new interim I-9 procedure for the period after those dates. Continued protection and the paperwork an employer may use are not the same determination.

For employers:

• Identify which employees rely on El Salvador TPS and review the documents and notices each person has.
• Do not end employment solely because an EAD appears expired, in light of USCIS’s statement that current holders retain protection.
• Keep dated copies of relevant USCIS and E-Verify alerts with the affected Forms I-9, and record the basis for the interim compliance decision.
• Do not add six months to an EAD or I-9 expiration date on your own. Seek qualified advice on the specific record and any reverification question.

For holders:

• Keep TPS approval notices, EADs, receipts for pending applications, and USCIS correspondence together for individual review.
• Ask an immigration attorney or DOJ-accredited representative to assess whether another option fits your history. TPS does not itself confer permanent residence.

Use official updates and preserve records for individual review

Holders can check USCIS’s El Salvador TPS page for changes. Employers can monitor USCIS, E-Verify and the Federal Register for revised instructions or a formal decision.

USCIS describes Form I-821 for TPS re-registration and Form I-765 for an employment document. Its page also outlines online filing options and says qualifying applicants may file the two forms together or submit the employment application separately. That information describes filing routes; it does not establish that a new re-registration period is open.

The agency lists free or low-cost legal-service providers and authorized representatives for people seeking individual advice. Until USCIS issues another announcement, the practical record for each employee remains the notices and documents that person actually received.