Nepal TPS: Termination, Remaining Options, and Green Card Pathway

Temporary Protected Status for Nepal was terminated by the Department of Homeland Security on August 5, 2025, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing that termination to remain in effect while litigation continues.¹² For roughly 12,000 Nepalese nationals who held Nepal TPS, that means work authorization has ended, protection from removal has ended, and any remaining path forward now depends on some other basis for staying in the United States.

Where the Termination Stands

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem determined that Nepal no longer met the conditions for TPS designation. DHS published the termination notice in the Federal Register on June 6, 2025, and it took effect 60 days later, on August 5, 2025.¹

The termination has been challenged in court. On December 31, 2025, a federal judge in the Northern District of California vacated DHS’s decision, briefly restoring protections. That relief did not last. On February 9, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the district court’s order, finding the government was likely to succeed on appeal. The termination is back in force while National TPS Alliance et al. v. Noem et al. continues.²

A ruling from the full Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court could still restore protections, but treating that possibility as a plan is a mistake. The USCIS Nepal TPS page is where any change will show up first.

What Termination Means If You Held Nepal TPS

Employment Authorization Documents issued under Nepal TPS are no longer valid. Employers who use E-Verify will see the change in the system, and continuing to work on a TPS-based EAD after termination creates legal exposure for both the worker and the employer.²

Former beneficiaries with no other immigration status are now in the same legal position as any undocumented person in the country. They are potentially subject to removal proceedings, though whether enforcement actually reaches any given individual depends on ICE priorities. The point is that TPS is no longer a shield.

What Options May Still Be Available

Some people who held Nepal TPS have a second basis for staying that operates independently of the terminated designation. The most important ones to check:

A pending or approvable family-based or employment-based immigrant petition.
An asylum claim, if the facts support one.
Cancellation of removal, for certain long-term residents who end up in proceedings.
Adjustment of status based on a prior authorized departure and return, described below.

Each of these has its own eligibility rules, and none of them is triggered automatically by having held TPS. They have to be pursued affirmatively.

The Travel-and-Return Pathway to a Green Card

This is the option most people miss, and it can be decisive for someone who originally entered the United States without inspection.

The Supreme Court held in Sanchez v. Mayorkas (2021) that TPS status by itself does not satisfy the “inspected and admitted” requirement for adjustment of status under federal law. Having lawful status is not the same as having been admitted.³ For a TPS holder who entered without inspection, that meant TPS alone did not open the door to a green card through adjustment.

Travel with authorization can change that. USCIS rescinded its earlier Matter of Z-R-Z-C- decision and now treats a TPS holder who leaves and returns on a TPS travel document (Form I-512T) as having been inspected and admitted, even if the original entry to the United States was unauthorized.⁴ For someone with an approved family or employment petition, that reentry can satisfy the admission requirement for adjustment under INA section 245(a).

The admission happened at the moment of that reentry, so the fact that Nepal TPS has since been terminated does not undo it. USCIS has also said it will consider treating some prior parole-based returns as admissions on a case-by-case basis using a multi-factor balancing test.⁴

A travel-based admission satisfies one element of adjustment, not all of them. The applicant still needs an immediately available immigrant visa, still needs to be admissible, and cannot be blocked by other statutory bars. This is a situation to bring to an immigration attorney rather than work through alone.

How Nepal TPS Worked and Who Held It

The designation goes back to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015. Then-Secretary Jeh Johnson designated Nepal for TPS on June 24, 2015, for an initial 18-month period, and DHS extended the designation several times after that.⁵

Nepal was never redesignated with a later qualifying date. Every eligible beneficiary had to be a Nepalese national (or a stateless person who last resided in Nepal) who had been continuously physically present and continuously residing in the United States since June 24, 2015.⁶⁵ Anyone who arrived after mid-2015 was never eligible, and no new initial applications are being accepted now that the designation has ended.

An earlier round of litigation, Bhattarai et al. v. Nielsen, produced a stipulation that kept the designation alive during previous appeals and guaranteed at least 365 days between a lifted stay and any actual termination.⁷ Whether similar cushion applies this time depends entirely on how the current appeal resolves.

What to Do Now

Two things matter more than the rest. First, do not keep working on an expired TPS-based EAD; the risk falls on both you and your employer. Second, sit down with an immigration attorney and go through every possible basis for remaining in the country, including the travel-based adjustment route if you ever left and returned on a TPS travel document. Some of these options have deadlines or depend on facts that are easier to document now than later. Waiting for the Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court to rule is not a strategy; it is a hope, and it should sit alongside a real plan rather than in place of one.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. DHS Terminates Temporary Protected Status for Nepal
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Nepal
3
Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Sanchez v. Mayorkas
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. PM-602-0188 – Rescission of Matter of Z-R-Z-C- as an Adopted Decision
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. DHS Announces Temporary Protected Status Designation for Nepal
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1254a – Temporary Protected Status
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Update on Bhattarai v. Nielsen