The U.S. government is to allow hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian immigrants to temporarily work in U.S., in an effort to help Haitians make money and rebuild their quake-torn homeland, U.S. immigration authorities said on Tuesday.

Haitians who came to the U.S. before the devastating earthquake will be able to start filing their applications for the Temporary Protected Status on Thursday, said Alejandro Mayorkas, Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

About 100,000 to 200,000 applications for this 18-month protection will be filed, Mayorkas estimated.

The U.S. has granted Temporary Protected Status to about 350, 000 people from Central American and African countries.

A strong earthquake hit Haiti last week, 75,000 were killed while 250,000 injured and a million left homeless, according to the Haitian government latest estimates.