TPS El Salvador Requirements: Eligibility, Bars, and Documents

To qualify for Temporary Protected Status as a Salvadoran national, you must have lived in the United States continuously since February 13, 2001, been physically present here continuously since March 9, 2001, pass criminal and security background checks, and file Form I-821 with the required fees. The TPS El Salvador requirements have not changed in substance for the current cycle, but the fee structure did: after the One Big Beautiful Bill became law on July 4, 2025, initial registration now costs $510 plus a $30 biometric fee, and fee waivers are no longer available for TPS registration or work permits. El Salvador’s designation runs through September 9, 2026.¹

Who Qualifies

You must be a national of El Salvador, or a person without nationality whose last habitual residence was El Salvador.² Two date-specific requirements sit on top of nationality, and both must be satisfied:

If you entered the country after either cutoff, you are not eligible under this designation. The burden of proof is on you, and it stretches back roughly 25 years.

What “Continuous” Actually Means

A short trip abroad does not automatically break the chain. The regulations allow “brief, casual, and innocent” absences if each trip was short and reasonably related to its purpose, was not the result of a deportation or voluntary departure order, and did not involve any unlawful activity while you were outside the country.⁴ No specific day count is set in the rule. Longer trips, or any absence tied to unlawful conduct, will break continuity and end eligibility.

What Disqualifies You

Certain convictions and security-related conduct bar TPS with almost no room for discretion.

Criminal Convictions

You are ineligible if you have been convicted of any felony, or of two or more misdemeanors committed in the United States.⁵ The federal definition controls, not the state label. A felony for TPS purposes is any crime punishable by more than one year in prison, measured by the maximum possible sentence rather than the sentence actually served. A misdemeanor is a crime punishable by one year or less. One exception softens this: if a state calls the offense a misdemeanor and your actual sentence was one year or less, it counts as a misdemeanor even when the theoretical maximum was higher.⁴

Offenses punishable by a maximum of five days or less in jail count as neither a felony nor a misdemeanor for TPS. A single qualifying misdemeanor alone will not bar you; two will. The classification can get technical quickly, and getting it wrong costs the entire benefit.

Asylum-Style Bars

The grounds that bar someone from asylum also bar TPS. These include persecuting another person, conviction of a particularly serious crime, commission of a serious nonpolitical crime outside the United States, being considered a danger to national security, involvement in terrorist activity, and firm resettlement in another country before arriving here.⁶ These apply on top of the felony and misdemeanor rules and reach conduct both inside and outside the country.

Documents to Prepare

A strong application rests on two document sets: identity and nationality, and a paper trail showing you have been physically here since early 2001.

Identity and Nationality

The strongest evidence is a valid Salvadoran passport or national identity card. A certified birth certificate also works. Any Spanish-language document must be accompanied by a full English translation with a certification from the translator stating they are competent in both languages and that the translation is complete and accurate. The certification should carry the translator’s name, signature, address, and date.

When primary documents are genuinely unavailable, secondary evidence such as baptismal records, school identification, or sworn affidavits from people who can verify who you are may be accepted. USCIS gives secondary evidence less weight, so lean on it only when you have no alternative.

Continuous Residence and Presence

Build a chronological record covering as much of the 25-year window as possible, drawing from more than one type of source. Useful items include pay stubs, tax returns, rent receipts, utility bills, medical records, school enrollment records, and records from religious organizations or community groups. Witness affidavits can supplement the file but cannot stand alone; an effective affidavit is internally consistent, matches the rest of your evidence, and is signed under penalty of perjury. An employer letter carries more weight when the employer states a willingness to testify.

Proof of Entry

Form I-94 is the standard record of when you arrived.⁷ Electronic I-94 records going back to 1983 can be retrieved through the CBP website.⁸ Without an I-94, other entry records or contemporaneous evidence placing you in the United States before the 2001 cutoffs can substitute.

Forms and Fees

You apply by filing Form I-821 with USCIS, either online or by mail to a designated Lockbox.⁹ If you also want a work permit, file Form I-765 at the same time.² Include your A-Number if you have one, and provide a complete address history for the required period.

The current fees under the July 2025 law:

Initial TPS registration (Form I-821): $510 filing fee plus a $30 biometric services fee.¹⁰
TPS re-registration (Form I-821): $0 filing fee plus a $30 biometric services fee.¹⁰
Initial work permit (Form I-765): $550.
Work permit renewal (Form I-765): $275.

The prior $50 registration fee is gone, and fee waivers through Form I-912 are no longer available for TPS registration or work permit applications. Fee waivers can still be requested in TPS cases adjudicated in immigration court.

Work Permits After Approval

An approved TPS application filed with Form I-765 produces an Employment Authorization Document valid for work in the United States during the TPS period. Under the new law, TPS work permits are capped at a one-year maximum validity, with the $550 initial cost and $275 renewal cost noted above.

For TPS-based EAD renewal applications pending or filed on or after July 22, 2025, employment authorization may be automatically extended for up to one year or the duration of TPS, whichever is shorter.¹¹ You can generally keep working while a renewal is pending, but the auto-extension now carries a hard ceiling that did not exist before.

Separately, EADs with category codes A-12 or C-19 previously issued to Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries are automatically extended through March 9, 2026. This covers cards with original expiration dates from March 9, 2018 through March 9, 2025.¹ You can show the expired card together with the Federal Register notice as I-9 proof of work authorization.

Keeping Your TPS

TPS is not a one-time approval. You have to re-register during each window USCIS announces in the Federal Register. For the current extension, the 60-day re-registration window ran from January 17, 2025 through March 18, 2025, and missing that window without good cause can lead USCIS to withdraw your status.³ Re-registration is filed on Form I-821 so USCIS can confirm you still meet the eligibility criteria.⁹

You also have to stay clear of any conviction that would trigger the felony or two-misdemeanor bar, and you must report any move to USCIS within 10 days.¹² Updating through a USCIS online account is the fastest route; a mailed paper Form AR-11 satisfies the legal duty but does not automatically update your address in USCIS case systems, so notices can still go astray.

What TPS Does Not Give You

TPS is temporary by design and does not become a green card on its own. In Sanchez v. Mayorkas (2021), the Supreme Court held that a grant of TPS is not a lawful “admission” for immigration purposes, so someone who entered without inspection cannot use TPS by itself as a stepping stone to adjust status.¹³ If you were lawfully admitted at some earlier point through a valid visa and later received TPS, that original admission may still support adjustment through a qualifying family or employment petition. When TPS protection ends, you revert to whatever status you held before, which for many means undocumented status and exposure to removal.

1
USCIS. Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: El Salvador
2
USCIS. Instructions for Application for Temporary Protected Status
3
Federal Register. Extension of the Designation of El Salvador for Temporary Protected Status
4
eCFR. 8 CFR 244.1 – Definitions
5
eCFR. 8 CFR 244.4 – Ineligible Aliens
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1158 – Asylum
7
USCIS. Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, Information for Completing USCIS Forms
8
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94/I-95 Website
9
USCIS. I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status
10
USCIS. USCIS Form G-1055 Fee Schedule
11
USCIS. Automatic Employment Authorization Document (EAD) Extension
12
USCIS. AR-11, Alien’s Change of Address Card
13
Supreme Court of the United States. Sanchez v. Mayorkas, 593 U.S. 218 (2021)