Haitian Refugees’ Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation changed on February 20, 2025. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, it will end on August 3, 2025. Employers and individuals must understand how this impacts related work authorizations based on this TPS: it will extend to August 3, 2025, not to February 3, 2026.

Recently, the E-Verify website posted an announcement concerning the employment eligibility verification (Form I-9) process and the TPS change. E-Verify is a federal government website that assists employers in verifying their employees’ authorization to work in the United States. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services runs this internet-based system with assistance from the Social Security Administration.

According to the announcement, employees with an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) that lists A12 or C19 category codes must change the expiration date to August 3, 2025. These category codes are specific to Haitian TPS. As a result, the EADs should include the new date in Section 2 in the Form I-9 in the Additional Information Field. Employers should also include the correction date and initial it.

E-Verify also informed employers that they should not create a new case when an employee’s work authorization expires due to their TPS Status ending. Instead, employers should re-verify the employee’s work eligibility by having the employee present another acceptable document from the list of acceptable documents for verifying employment eligibility.

Shortening the TPS designation from 18 to 12 months is to “allow for a fresh review of country conditions in Haiti and of whether such conditions remain both ‘extraordinary’ and ‘temporary,’ whether Haitian may return in safety, and whether it is contrary to the U.S. national interest to continue to permit the Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States.” The Secretary of Homeland Security intends to review the TPS designation for Haiti by June 4, 2025. Should the Secretary fail to finish reviewing the updated TPS, an automatic six-month extension will trigger for the existing designation.

Regulations that affect the completion of the employment eligibility process can prove confusing, making compliance difficult. Unfortunately, many costly mistakes occur because the requirements change frequently, and human resources personnel may struggle to stay current with these changes. One way to ensure compliance is using an electronic I-9 management tool offering E-Verify integration. This tool can guide employers through employment verification and ensure human resources workers know which documents are suitable to prove work authorization.

Automate your employment eligibility verification today with the ensured compliance of I-9 Compliance.

Source