United States Citizenship & Immigration Services held a Public Service Engagement conference call with Mariela Melero, Associate Director of Customer Service and Public Engagement on Tuesday, January 13th, 2015 in order to address policy changes and updates in regards to the Deferred Action for a Childhood Arrival program. As of right now, there will not be any additional changes from the initial Executive Action announcement made by President Obama on November 20th, 2014 but we do have minor updates from the USCIS Directors as to what we should expect:

1. Individuals who entered the United States of America on or prior to January 1st, 2010 and are filing for Deferred Action for a Childhood Arrival will still need to prove residence in the U.S. as of June 15th, 2012; the residence date in the United States has not changed.

2. The prior age limit to a potential Applicant was thirty one years of age. The new Executive Action now allows an individual to apply regardless of their current age. The individual will still need to have been in the United States of America prior to the age of 16 and will have to have been in the United States of America prior to January 1st, 2010 and be able to show residency in the U.S. on June 15th, 2012.

3. All Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival initial requests and renewal requests will now be granted deferred action and employment authorization for a period of three years rather than the prior two years for all approved requester’s who submitted their applications as of November 20th, 2014.

4. The expectation of Deferred Action for a Childhood Arrival expansion to open up for new eligible applications is tentatively Feburary 18th, 2015; 90 days from the date of President Obama’s Executive Action announcement.

5. The required forms will be the same. Deferred Action for a Childhood Arrival requires individuals to file the Forms I-821D, Form I-765 and Form I-765WS along with all supporting documentation. There will be no increase in the current filing fees of $465.00.

As policy updates and regulations continue to be announced, our firm will be posting regular updates for any/all changes to the Deferred Action for a Childhood Arrival program. Additionally, there will be a Public Service Engagement for the new Deferred Action for a Parent Arrival on January 22nd, 2015. Our firm will be attending that engagement and will have updates shortly after. Please check back again soon for additional updates.  

Faisal Z. Khan