Sponsors (4)
The bill provides legal status, work authorization, faster processing, and limited travel protections for Afghans in the U.S., while creating administrative costs and potential vetting pressures that may leave some applicants uncertain or delayed.
Afghan nationals physically present in the U.S. can remain and work legally through July 1, 2029 via a Temporary Protected Status designation, providing stability and lawful employment.
Afghan TPS applicants (and current beneficiaries) receive much faster decisions because DHS must adjudicate TPS and EAD applications within 90 days, reducing long waits for work authorization and related uncertainty.
Low-income Afghan applicants may be eligible for fee waivers, lowering financial barriers to applying for TPS and work authorization.
DHS may feel pressured by the 90-day adjudication deadline (with a possible 150-day national-security extension), which could rush complex vetting or create backlog/uncertainty for cases needing extended review.
Taxpayers and the federal budget could incur administrative costs from processing a large number of TPS applications, background checks, and issuing work authorizations.
Some applicants will still be denied or found ineligible on admissibility or criminal grounds, leaving affected families with continued uncertainty despite the TPS designation.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Designates Afghanistan for TPS through July 1, 2029 and requires DHS to accept, adjudicate, and provide work authorization, travel consent, and fee waivers under stated timelines and conditions.
Official title: Designate Afghanistan under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to permit nationals of Afghanistan to be eligible for temporary protected status under such section, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 6, 2026 by Christopher A. Coons · Last progress August 6, 2026
Designates Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) through July 1, 2029, allowing eligible Afghan nationals in the United States to apply for and receive TPS and employment authorization. It requires the Department of Homeland Security to accept and adjudicate applications within defined timelines, provide for limited extensions when national-security or derogatory information requires extra review, permit emergency travel with prior DHS consent, and allow fee waivers for applicants eligible solely under this designation. The bill also deems Afghan nationals who are continuously physically present in the United States since enactment to meet certain continuous-presence requirements if they register and complete biometric, biographic, and security checks, while preserving standard inadmissibility and ineligibility screening rules in law.