This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh, Fredrikson Immigration Department Chair, is a member.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an alert on August 24, 2020, summarizing how it will implement its July 28, 2020, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy memorandum.
Among other things, the alert states that USCIS will reject all initial DACA requests from those who have never previously received DACA and will return all fees. These applicants will be able to reapply if USCIS begins accepting such new requests in the future. USCIS will continue to accept requests from those who were granted DACA “at any time in the past” and will also accept requests for advance parole. The agency also stated:
For approvable DACA renewal requests, USCIS will limit grants of deferred action and employment authorization to no more than one year but will not rescind any currently valid two-year DACA grants or associated employment authorization documents (EADs). USCIS said it will replace two-year EADs that are lost, stolen or damaged with the same “facial two-year validity period.” DACA recipients should file their renewal requests between 150 and 120 days before their current grant of DACA expires.
For new advance parole requests to travel outside of the United States, USCIS will grant them only for situations it deems as sufficiently constituting “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” in its discretion under the totality of the circumstances. USCIS said it would not rescind any previously granted advance parole documents absent another legal reason to do so, but it noted that “parole into the United States is not guaranteed.”
