Each code consists of two parts, separated by a hyphen. The first part is TL, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of East Timor. The second part is two letters.
Before it became independent from Indonesia in 2002, East Timor was officially assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code TP. Moreover, it was also assigned the ISO 3166-2 code ID-TT under the entry for Indonesia.
Current codes
Subdivision names are listed as in the ISO 3166-2 standard published by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA).
The following changes to the entry have been announced by the ISO 3166/MA since the first publication of ISO 3166-2 in 1998. ISO stopped issuing newsletters in 2013.
Change of country name in accordance with ISO 3166-1 Newsletter V-6 (East Timor renamed Timor-Leste in English and French). Spelling correction in TL-LI
Change of subdivision category name from district to municipality; Addition of category name in tet; Change of category name from district to special administrative region for TL-OE; Change of spelling in por of TL-OE; Change of spelling of TL-LA; Addition of local variation of TL-OE; Update List Source