Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

With respect to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, our law firm may be able to assist with the following issues:

• For existing clients: Our office may be able to, renew your DACA, help you file for Advance Parole, or screen you for other immigration remedies if new events come up in your life (for example, we work on T visas, U visas, and green card cases for DACA-holders).
• For new/potential clients: We may be able to offer you a consult (with screening with our legal team beforehand to help prepare) to discuss your options.
  • who want a DACA renewal – may be able to screen you for DACA renewal eligibility and other immigration remedies, then advise you on any possible options.
  • who want help with filing for Advance Parole – may be able to screen you for Parole eligibility and other immigration remedies then advise you on any possible options (Be careful! – if you travel on Advance Parole, it may hurt or help your future options, so talk to a lawyer first).
  • with DACA (or of any immigration status) – may be able to screen you to see if you are eligible for some other immigration remedy, like employment-based sponsorship, or a victim visa, or permanent residency.

Please review the information below and set up a consultation with our office if you would like help with any of these scenarios.

This information is only an overview. Potential applicants should not take it as specific advice for their situation. For advice specific to your situation, please fill contact us to schedule and make a payment to book your consultation.

Yes, USCIS can, in its discretion, terminate the grant of DACA at any time. Usually, USCIS provides a “Notice of Intent to Terminate” and gives the DACA holder some time to respond. However, this is not required, and USCIS can terminate with no Notice, especially if someone is convicted of some severe criminal offenses.

If you have lost your DACA, or think you might lose it, an attorney may be able to evaluate your options to get a different type of status or to get back or keep DACA. For example, at Helen Tarokic Law, we have done U and T visa cases for people who thought their DACA was gone forever, but were fortunately able to seek those better immigration options.

Our law office may be able to assist you in filing a DACA renewal if you are eligible. Please can set up a consultation with our office to determine if you are eligible for renewal (and/or some other immigration remedy). The requirements for renewal eligibility are on the USCIS FAQ website – they include the same factors as the original application for DACA as well as additional criminal history and physical presence requirements.

Timing is important! DACA holders must be careful to file their renewal requests in enough time that their application can be reviewed and approved such that there is no gap in time before their current DACA status expires. This could result in “unlawful presence,” which raises inadmissibility problems (see below).

If your previous period of DACA expires before you apply for and/or receive renewal, that “in between” time period may cause you to accrue unlawful presence, which can raise inadmissibility issues for other immigration remedies.

This article is not intended to give legal advice for any specific case or person. Every case is unique. The information contained here is a general guide. Law and policy change all the time and we advise that you do not apply for this option without consulting competent legal counsel.

The Advance Parole process is a method for people with DACA to travel outside the United States, but only for limited purposes and time. Advance Parole only allows international travel for humanitarian, educational, or employment purposes. The application is prepared using Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, and evidence to support your request. Simply taking a vacation is not considered an appropriate purpose.

However, this is not an appropriate option for every DACA holder. Immigration and criminal offense history makes international travel, even with Advance Parole, an unwise option for some people. Or, if you were a victim of labor violations or another type of exploitation or crime, you might want to file for a different status rather than traveling on DACA; if you are seeking T or U status, you really need specific legal advice before traveling.

A consultation with a qualified attorney can help determine if this is an option for you. You should not leave the United States without consulting with an attorney. Our law office may be able to assist you determine if Advance Parole is an option for you and file for Advance Parole if it is.

Unauthorized travel outside the United States can bring several negative consequences. For example:

• You will no longer be a in period of deferred action
• You may be barred from re-entering the United States
• You may break your continuous residence in the United States, and other issues.

Generally speaking, DACA holders should also be careful where they travel within the United States. It may be best to avoid flying over, past, or near any US borders in case the flight is diverted, and the DACA holder has to make an emergency landing outside the United States. We do not recommend travel to Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, or other places where an airplane might divert or where you may accidentally end up going through Customs or leaving the US. It may be best and safest to stay well within the continental United States and avoid any borders.

It is best for DACA holders to consult with an immigration attorney before travelling.

Sure – Just remember the USCIS website is not always the most current info and is not designed to help you find the BEST legal option.

• Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) https://www.uscis.gov/DACA

To review the eligibility requirements for DACA applications, as well as the documents needed to submit the application, please check the USCIS FAQ website.

As you review the list below, please also review the “Do You Need a Waiver of Inadmissibility?” section, as some of these options may not be available to you based on your immigration and criminal offense history.

There are several possibilities, but not all of them are available for every person. A detailed immigration consult is necessary to help decide which of these may be available to you:

• A family petition:
  • Based on marriage to a US Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident (Green Card holder) – but not always. An applicant’s entry/exit history, use of false papers or a US citizen identity, or other things might prevent a family-based sponsorship from being a successful green card case.

• • Based on another family member who has US Citizenship or Lawful Permanent Residency. Long wait times or specific ineligibility due to past immigration violations may prevent this.

• • Options for military families – “Parole in Place”. Again, comprehensive consults are designed to determine if something like this would work. If you have been denied PIP, a second opinion may be able to help.

• Humanitarian immigration options
  • A U Nonimmigrant Visa for victims of certain qualifying crimes. Even if the victim has not yet reported the crime, it may still be worth speaking to an immigration attorney.

• • A T Nonimmigrant Visa for victims of sex or labor exploitation. This is a very broad category, so when you see the word “trafficking” please keep reading – many people who have been victimized, even if it went unreported, may be T visa eligible.

• • A VAWA self-petition: A petition under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) may present some options for people who have been victims of abuse by a US Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident spouse, parent, or child.

• See Also:
  • Options for victims of Domestic Violence,
  • LGBTQIA+

• Medical Deferred Action for parents of sick children
  • Although this would not be a permanent immigration option, your attorneys will also want to know if you are the parent or caretaker for a child with critical illnesses or special needs. You may be eligible for General (Medical) Deferred Action.

• Other special remedies that are best explained in a consultation:
  • Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) may be available for a child under age 18 (or 21 in some places) who has been abused, abandoned, or neglected by at least one parent. The juvenile court or another state agency must be involved in the child’s custody in some specific ways. A full consultation will be important to learn more.
  • Asylum – though our law office does not usually take asylum cases, we may be able, through a consultation, to help a potential client understand any other options they may have. Or, we may be able to refer you to another attorney who does take asylum cases.
  • Relief from removal – if you are in removal proceedings, there are some limited “cancellation of removal” remedies that may be available to you.

There are so many other types of immigration remedies beyond just what is listed here. Please book a consultation with a qualified immigration attorney to explore all your options.

Since many Dreamers were brought to the United States as a minor, they may not even know their full immigration history.

At Helen Tarokic Law, while working with a potential client or current client, part of our research may include filing requests with the various government agencies who manage people moving in and out of the United States, including the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).  Under the “Freedom of Information Act,” you have a right to your files!

We may be able to file these records requests on behalf of a client after a consultation and contract.

See: How to set up a Consult and other FAQ

Certain elements of a person’s immigration status, as well as any criminal offenses, can make them“inadmissible” to the United States. You can think of it as certain actions (such as entering without authorization, leaving, and then re-entering the United States) that “close the door” on some immigration options. This means that even though a person may qualify for the basic elements of a family or humanitarian immigration remedy, it would not be granted to because of those inadmissibility factors.

Some people with DACA have inadmissibility issues that can be waived/forgiven as part of a new type of immigration application. Sometimes it cannot.

Just because a person has DACA does not mean another type of case will or will not work for them, because “inadmissibility” rules are not the same for each type of immigration option. Some people who are “inadmissible” still get DACA renewals because they meet the DACA requirements, but a different immigration option may require filing waivers and additional forms.

Most T and U visas and VAWA and SIJ cases have special waivers or provisions making it easier to get an inadmissibility waiver or exemption.

Honesty is important! An inadmissibility screening may be part of the conversations a potential client has with a legal team before meeting with the attorney. It is important that you answer the questions honestly and to the best of your ability. An attorney can only help solve the problems if the applicant discloses them in this confidential and safe space.

While DACA is for the person who qualifies for DACA, sometimes a DACA holder has a family with mixed status, meaning their parents, siblings, spouse or children need status. Those people don’t get DACA just because the main applicant has DACA, since DACA does not allow for “derivative beneficiaries.”

However, at Helen Tarokic Law, we try to take a holistic view in consultations. We are looking not just for something better than DACA for that single applicant – we are looking to see whether we might have options to offer a family of derivatives. The office may even recommend or request that a family member should book a consultation with our office as well, to discuss derivative options if any are available.

Also, sometimes it turns out that the DACA holder is not eligible for any new, cool immigration option – but their spouse or other family member is – and then an attorney may be able to do a different case so that everyone can benefit.

Here is an example: Bob has DACA. Bob’s mother and father are undocumented. Bob’s employer was being horrible on a day when Bob called in sick. Bob’s supervisor, who he usually carpooled with, went to the home where all three lived and yelled at Bob to get out of bed and get to work or there’d be heck to pay if he had to send immigration to the house to get Bob out of bed. Now Bob and his parents are worried about how the employer knows where they all live. In a case like this, our office may look at doing a T-1 visa for Bob and T-4 visas for his parents. If approved, the family may be able to file for Green Cards and later, Naturalization, if they are otherwise eligible.

Let’s switch the scenario. Let’s say it was Bob’s mother who got yelled at by her boss which scared her husband and son – we might be filing a T-1 for Bob’s mom, a T-2 for his dad, and a T-3 or T-6 for Bob, depending on Bob’s age. See why we need the bigger picture?

We say to DACA holders – if you have DACA but someone in your family is living in the shadows, they may benefit from having their own separate confidential consultations with an immigration attorney as well. We may be able to offer that in our office or we may refer you to another attorney, if needed.