The Obama Administration has extended application deadline for Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for undocumented Haitians in the U.S. from the initial deadline of July 20, 2010 to January, 2011.

Several Haitian immigration advocates and community leaders, including South Florida politicians, were concerned that as the initial deadline to apply for TPS approached, thousands of Haitians would be deported into earthquake ravaged Haiti.

However, on July 12, the six-month anniversary of the earthquake, the Director of the Citizens and Immigration Services (CIS), Alejandro Mayorkas, announced in Miami that the government had extended the deadline for applying for TPS to January 18, 2011. The director said the extension was in response to Haitian immigration advocates who lobbied for more time for the filing of the temporary facility. Under U.S. law TPS offers immigrants from countries experiencing political upheaval or environmental disasters a chance to stay and work in the U.S. for up to 18 months.

TPS is available to undocumented Haitians who were living in the U.S. before the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12. To file, applicants must complete required paperwork and pay a fee of $470.

Fort Lauderdale Haitian community activist, Jean Josephs, who has been working with eligible undocumented Haitians since President Obama announced the granting of TPS on January 18, said that he has assisted over 70 people to complete the paperwork, but over half have still not completed the application due to cost.

Josephs said while he and other Haitian community leaders in South Florida were “extremely pleased at the TPS extension,” the wide-scale nature of the devastation in Haiti will require a “much longer extension for TPS than six months. It’s not that we are ungrateful for Mr. Obama’s help, but the situation in Haiti is too dreadful for these people to return home to live.”

According to ICS, approximately 55,000 Haitians have applied for TPS and some 35,000 have been approved, and another 1,200 applications denied. Haitian attorney Fritz Gervais said that the number of applicants would be much higher if they could find the funds.

Mayorkas said an estimated 70,000 and 100,000 Haitians are expected to apply for the facility.

But, TPS did not come to undocumented Haitians in the U.S. easily. For months after four successive storms damaged Haiti in 2008, the Haitian government and community advocates in the U.S., including Florida Congressional Representatives Kendrick Meek, Alcee Hastings and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, made strong demands to the former President George W. Bush administration for TPS to be granted. However, it was not until the earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince and neighboring towns, that President Obama granted the status to allow undocumented Haitians to stay and work in the U.S.

TPS also grants eligible documented Haitians access to some well needed social services, including healthcare and education.