DACA Update
As of December 6, 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be accepting new initial DACA applications. They will also be accepting I131 Advance Parole travel applications for those who are already DACA holders. Third, there will be a 2-year permit validation for employment authorization, as opposed to the year that the Trump Administration had initially modified it to be.
DACA
DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This is a legal policy in the United States that helps people who are living in the United States but undocumented because they were brought here as a child. DACA intends to give you two years of grace to become eligible for a work permit in the United States without being deported.
The qualifier for DACA is that you cannot have had a felony or serious criminal charge against you. DACA should not be confused with the DREAM act which is a path to citizenship. DACA does not do that.
There are several benefits to DACA, including the improvements it brings to the mental health of the applicants and their families. There are also studies that have shown the number of households with impoverished undocumented immigrants has decreased since its inception. Crime rates in this community have gone down as well, so that natural born citizens actually have higher crime rates than immigrants.
Our New Jersey immigration lawyer Susan Scheer would love to sit down with you and discuss your options and how DACA could be the best choice for you. Please reach out as soon as you can.
I131 Advance Parole Applications
This may be the right choice for you if you are in the US but you don’t have your green card just yet. If you are waiting for it, a I131 can let you travel abroad and will not affect your green card application.
If you have been waiting on your green card after you were married to a US citizen, you could be in a process that takes more than a year to get it. In some instances, it can take almost three years for the process to wrap up.
If you have family in other places in the world, desire to vacation out of the states, or have work ties outside of the country, waiting for a green card for potentially years can really hang things up.
If you were to travel abroad without taking necessary legal steps, you would be looking at a terminated green card application. This can be avoided when you have a travel document.
We encourage folks to submit an I131 at the same time as their green card application because it’s best to preemptively prepare for a trip out of the states than to have to choose between terminating your green card application or go visit a dying relative.
New Jersey immigration attorney Susan Scheer is here to help you get through this process smoothly.
Employment Authorization
Employment authorizations are essentially work permits that are issued by the USCIS that will allow you to work in the United States temporarily.
It looks like a credit card in size as it is a plastic card but it holds your personal information, as well as the dates it is valid. This is not the same thing as a green card.
How This Changes Things for You
A decision was made on the 14th of November in 2020 by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York that requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to start implementing several actions. This was signed by Judge Garaufis on the fourth of December 2020. According to this opinion, the USCIS, as of the seventh of December 2020, will:
- Accept first-time applications for DACA with the terms that were set in place on the fifth of September 2020
- Accept applications for renewing DACA with the terms that were set in place on the fifth of September 2020
- Accept advance parole document applications with the terms that were set in place on the fifth of September 2020
- Extend the previous one-year limit to two years for deferred action with DACA
- Extend to two years for employment authorizations
If you have any questions regarding this latest DACA news, we would be more than happy to discuss with you what your options are and how we can help you with your immigration matter. Our New Jersey immigration lawyer Susan Scheer has handled many cases through all kinds of immigration law changes. We are always up-to-date with our legal information so that we can provide you with the smoothest experience possible.
Call Our New Jersey Immigration Lawyer Today
If you have any questions regarding the latest DACA news, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our New Jersey immigration lawyer Susan Scheer as soon as possible to set up a consultation. We would be happy to guide you through your legal options for your immigration matters. Call us today.