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Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
The TPS sets up a legislative foundation for permitting a group of people provisional refuge in the United States. The Attorney General may select nationals of a foreign country to be entitled for TPS with a finding that conditions in that country present a risk to personal safety because of continuing armed wars or a natural catastrophe. TPS is allowed for periods of 6 to 18 months in the beginning and may be extended depending on the situation. Removal procedures are generally suspended against foreigners while they are in Temporary Protected Status.

Temporary Resident
See Nonimmigrant.

Temporary Worker
Nonimmigrant temporary worker classes of admission, who come to the United States to work temporarily, are:

• H-1A - Temporary registered nurses (discontinued)
• H-1B - specialty occupations workers admitted on the basis of professional education, skills, and/or equivalent experience
• H-1C - registered nurses who work in areas that have a shortage of health professionals under the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999 (discontinued)
• H-2A - temporary agricultural workers coming to the United States to carry out agricultural services or labor of a temporary or seasonal nature when approved workers are unavailable in the United States
• H-2B - temporary non-agricultural workers coming to the United States to carry out temporary services or labor if unemployed persons able to perform the service or labor cannot be found in the United States
• H-3 - aliens coming temporarily to the United States as trainees, other than to receive graduate medical education or training
• O-1, O-2, O-3 - temporary workers with extraordinary ability or achievement in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics; those entering exclusively to escort and help such workers in addition to their spouses and children
• P-1, P-2, P-3, P-4 - athletes and entertainers at an internationally recognized level of performance; artists and entertainers under a mutual exchange program; artists and entertainers under a program that is "culturally unique" in addition to their spouses and children
• Q-1, Q-2, Q-3 – members in international cultural exchange programs; members in the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program in addition to spouses and children of Irish Peace Process members
• R-1, R-2 - Religious temporary workers and their spouses and children.

Transit without Visa (TWOV)
A transit alien admitted under agreements with a transportation line, which assures instant and incessant passage to a foreign destination without a nonimmigrant visa.

Treaty Country
A foreign state which is qualified as a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, or Navigation or its equivalent exists with the United States of America.

Treaty Trader or Investor
A nonimmigrant foreigner coming to the United States, under the provisions of a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and the foreign state of such alien, to perform extensive trading or to manage the business in which he/she has invested a considerable sum of money

TSC
The acronym for two instances: Texas Service Center OR Terrorist Screening Center.

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► Click on the letters above for more U.S. Immigration Terms.