Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders typically can only lawfully remain in the U.S. if their countries continue to be designated as a county eligible for TPS. Countries currently eligible for TPS are Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Cameroon, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen. TPS provides a stay of deportation, travel document, and a work permit for these foreign nationals living in the US.

These individuals from these countries tend to cannot risk going back to their home country because of temporary conditions such as civil unrest, environmental disaster, and other extraordinary and temporary conditions.

Typically, if a country’s TPS designation is terminated, the TPS holder would have to leave the U.S. Some TPS holders oftentimes get married to try to adjust their status. However, they run into difficulty adjusting their status in the U.S. because of admissibility issues.

Most inadmissibility issues tend to stem from most TPS holders entering the U.S. without inspection or a valid I-94. TPS holders can overcome inadmissibility issues by traveling internationally and then re entering the U.S. By doing so TPS holders will parole legally into the U.S. and then be able to adjust their status legally in the U.S.

Previously, the Miscellaneous and Technical Immigration and Naturalization Amendment of 1991 (MTINA), stipulated that TPS holders who traveled internationally and returned on “advance parole” were considered to be admitted with a valid inspection. However, in August 2020, in Matter of Z-R-Z-C, it revoked the MTINA policy. TPS holders could no longer use their reentry from their advance to overcome their previous admissibility issues. They were deemed to be admitted with the same immigration status they previously had which was typically no legal status or an arriving alien. Thu, not being able to adjust their status in the U.S. even if they were paroled back in the U.S. This was brutal for many TPS holders who utilized the advanced parole to fix their admissibility issues.