What's New

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended and redesignated Ukraine for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from Oct. 20, 2023, through April 19, 2025.   Individuals with a pending or approved TPS application may qualify for certain public benefits and REAL ID driver's licenses and identification cards.  When applying for a federal, state, or local government benefit, individuals will need to show a document proving they applied for or are beneficiaries of TPS for Ukraine.  They may provide a TPS Employment Authorization Document (EAD) with a category code of A12 or C19, or a copy of their Form I-797, Notice of Action, for a current Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status. Given the time frames for processing TPS re-registration applications, USCIS has automatically extended through Oct. 19, 2024, the validity of EADs with a Card Expires date of Oct. 19, 2023, issued under the prior TPS designation of Ukraine.  TPS Ukraine applicants or beneficiaries presenting an auto-extended EAD do not need to show any other document, such as a Form I-797 or I-797C Notice of Action, to prove that they qualify for the EAD auto-extension.

This announcement provides information about documentation and the SAVE verification process for individuals from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who were paroled into the United States under the Family Reunification Parole Processes, which permit nationals of these countries and their immediate family members to be paroled on a case-by-case basis for up to three years. Documentation Parolees under the Family Reunification Parole Processes can present a copy of their electronic Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, from the U.S Customs and Border Protection website at i94.cbp.dhs.gov, which will include one of the following classes of admission (COAs): RCO (Colombia Family Reunification Parole); RSV (El Salvador Family Reunification Parole); RGT (Guatemala Family Reunification Parole); and RHN (Honduras Family Reunification Parole). They may also have one or more of the following:

Effective Oct.1, 2023, USCIS will begin a phased-in transaction charge increase for SAVE verification cases that will also streamline billing to a single charge per verification case. Information regarding the transaction charge increase as well as the phase-in timeline can be found on the new Transaction Charges webpage.  

Beginning September 1, 2023, USCIS will dispose of SAVE records more than 10 years old, which are those dated on or before Dec. 31, 2012. SAVE agency users with the Superuser role will have until August 26 to download case information from the Historic Records Report if they want to retain information about these SAVE cases. For more information and guidance on downloading the Historic Records Report, please see the SAVE Instructions to Download Historic Records Report Tip Sheet. Please send any questions or concerns to your SAVE Agency Relationship Manager or SAVE.Help@uscis.dhs.gov.

From initial to additional verification requests, the SAVE Training for Current Users webinar highlights best practices to prevent errors and delays.  It shows you where to find helpful resources for SAVE users and benefit applicants. And each webinar concludes with a question-and-answer session to ensure that you have the information you need to efficiently and effectively use the SAVE system. The Summer 2023 webinar schedule is available on the SAVE Webinars page. To attend, select one of the options and click the link to register. After registration, you’ll receive an email with a reminder to join on the day of the webinar. For assistance with registration or for any other questions, please contact our Agency Relationship Management team at saveregistration@uscis.dhs.gov.

SAVE service has been restored. Benefit-granting agencies are once again able to fully access their SAVE accounts and process cases.

SAVE is temporarily not available due to technical difficulties. While SAVE is unavailable, agencies and applicants will not be able to access their SAVE accounts or check their case status using SAVE CaseCheck.  We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience. 

President Biden issued a memorandum extending and expanding eligibility for Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for certain Hong Kong residents. The president also directed the secretary of homeland security to provide eligible Hong Kong residents continued employment authorization through Feb. 5, 2025. Eligible Hong Kong residents are employment authorized incident to DED. In addition, USCIS has automatically extended through Feb. 5, 2025, the validity of DED-related Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) with a Card Expires date of Feb. 5, 2023, and a Category of A-11.  SAVE can verify DED and this employment authorization extension using information from the benefit applicant's EAD or other immigration documentation, even if it is expired on its face. In some instances, the benefit-granting agency may need to institute additional verification.