Temporary Protected Status for Cameroon was terminated by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem effective August 4, 2025, and Cameroonian nationals who held TPS no longer have that protection or the work authorization that came with it.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Cameroon The termination notice published on June 4, 2025, gave holders roughly 60 days before benefits ended.2Federal Register. Termination of the Designation of Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status If you were covered, the practical question now is what status you have and what relief, if any, is still available.
What Termination Actually Changed
Employment authorization documents issued under the Cameroon designation were automatically extended through August 4, 2025, and are no longer valid after that date.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Cameroon Employers who verified work authorization on the strength of a Cameroon TPS EAD can no longer treat those cards as current.
When TPS ends, you revert to whatever immigration status you held before receiving it. If that prior status has since expired, or if you entered the country without inspection, you are now considered undocumented and subject to removal. TPS never converted into any permanent status. It was always a temporary shield, and once the designation ends, the shield disappears.
The window for finding an alternative is short and the enforcement exposure is real. Anyone in this position should speak with an immigration attorney rather than wait to see what happens.
Immigration Options After TPS Ends
Losing TPS does not automatically leave you with no options. Several forms of relief may still be available, depending on how you entered the country, whether you have family or an employer willing to petition for you, and what you fear if you return to Cameroon.
Adjustment of Status Through a Family or Employer Petition
If a qualifying family member or employer has an approved immigrant visa petition on your behalf, you may be able to apply for a green card through adjustment of status. Federal law requires that you were “inspected and admitted” or “paroled” into the United States to adjust. The Supreme Court held in Sanchez v. Mayorkas that receiving TPS alone does not count as an admission, so if you originally entered without inspection, TPS did not fix that problem.3Supreme Court of the United States. Sanchez v. Mayorkas
There is one workaround that matters. TPS holders who traveled abroad on approved advance parole and returned through a port of entry were treated as “inspected and admitted” on re-entry. Under a 2022 USCIS policy memo, that re-entry satisfied the admission requirement for adjustment. If you traveled and returned on a Form I-512T while your TPS was active, you may have already cleared this hurdle without realizing it.
Asylum or Withholding of Removal
If conditions in Cameroon still put you at personal risk of persecution based on your race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group, asylum or withholding of removal may apply. The one-year filing deadline for asylum is a serious obstacle for most former TPS holders, though exceptions exist for changed or extraordinary circumstances. Withholding of removal has no filing deadline but offers fewer benefits than asylum and a higher standard of proof.
Other Forms of Relief
Depending on your situation, cancellation of removal, a U visa for crime victims, or VAWA protections for survivors of domestic violence may apply. Each has its own eligibility rules and filing process, entirely separate from TPS.
Why Your Past Travel History Matters Now
For anyone weighing adjustment of status, whether you traveled abroad on advance parole while TPS was active is one of the most important details in your file. Travel on an approved I-512T carried a benefit beyond simply preserving TPS. Under USCIS policy following the Board of Immigration Appeals decision in Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, departing on advance parole did not trigger the three-year or ten-year unlawful-presence bars that normally apply to people who leave after accruing unlawful presence.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Travel Documents
Combine that with the admission workaround described above, and a former TPS holder who traveled and returned on an I-512T can be in a materially different legal position from one who never left. Pull your travel records before meeting with counsel.
Criminal Bars That Follow You Into Other Relief
Federal law barred anyone convicted of a felony, or two or more misdemeanors committed in the United States, from holding TPS.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S. Code 1254a – Temporary Protected Status The statute also incorporated the mandatory bars to asylum, including participating in the persecution of others, engaging in terrorist activity, and being found inadmissible on security-related grounds. Some inadmissibility grounds could be waived for humanitarian purposes, family unity, or public interest, but drug trafficking, terrorism-related grounds, and participation in persecution were non-waivable.
These bars are worth understanding after termination because many of them apply equally to asylum, adjustment of status, and other benefits a former TPS holder might pursue. A conviction that kept you out of TPS is likely to keep you out of what comes next as well.
Taxes for 2025 Earnings
If you earned income during 2025 while your TPS and work authorization were still valid, you still have to file a federal return for that tax year. Most TPS holders who had been in the country long enough to meet the continuous-residence requirements were resident aliens under the substantial presence test and taxed on worldwide income using the same forms as U.S. citizens.6Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 851, Resident and Nonresident Aliens Falling behind on filings can also complicate future immigration applications, since USCIS and immigration courts sometimes request tax transcripts as evidence of good moral character or continuous presence.
How the Cameroon Designation Ran Its Course
DHS first designated Cameroon for TPS on June 7, 2022, citing armed conflict and civil unrest, including violence in the Anglophone regions and attacks by Boko Haram.7Federal Register. Designation of Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status In October 2023, DHS both extended that designation and redesignated Cameroon, opening the door to more recent arrivals. The redesignation required continuous residence in the United States since October 5, 2023, and continuous physical presence since December 8, 2023, and ran through June 7, 2025.8Federal Register. Extension and Redesignation of Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status The June 2025 termination notice ended the program before any further extension issued, and USCIS is not accepting new Cameroon TPS applications. If the designation is ever restored by Congress or the courts, the eligibility dates and re-registration windows will be set by whatever new notice DHS publishes.