Filing Process

Beginning August 15, 2012, you will be required to submit your request for consideration of deferred action to USCIS through a form, along with a form requesting an employment authorization document. The total fees will be $465. USCIS is still developing the forms and will be submitting them to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. Pending OMB clearance, the forms and instructions will be available on the USCIS website on August 15, 2012. Do not submit any request to USCIS before these forms are available. All requests received before August 15, 2012, will be rejected. Note: All individuals meeting the guidelines, including those in removal proceedings, with a final removal order, or with a voluntary departure order (and not in immigration detention), will affirmatively request consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals from USCIS through this process. Individuals who are currently detained and believe they meet the guidelines should not request deferred action from USCIS but should identify themselves to their detention officer

Background checks involve checking biographic and biometric information provided by the individuals against a variety of databases maintained by DHS and other federal government agencies.

If you have submitted a request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals and USCIS decides not to defer action in your case, USCIS will apply its policy guidance governing the referral of cases to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the issuance of Notices to Appear (NTA). If your case does not involve a criminal offense, fraud, or a threat to national security or public safety, your case will not be referred to ICE for purposes of removal proceedings except where DHS determines there are exceptional circumstances. For more detailed information on the applicable NTA policy visit www.uscis.gov/NTA. If after a review of the totality of circumstances USCIS determines to defer action in your case, USCIS will likewise exercise its discretion and will not issue you a Notice to Appear.

There are no fee waivers available for employment authorization applications connected to the deferred action for childhood arrivals process. There are very limited fee exemptions available. Requests for fee exemptions must be filed and favorably adjudicated before an individual files his/her request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals without a fee. In order to be considered for a fee exemption, you must submit a letter and supporting documentation to USCIS demonstrating that you meet one of the following conditions:

1. You are under 18 years of age, homeless, in foster care or otherwise lacking any parental or other familial support, and your income is less than 150% of the U.S. poverty level.
2. You cannot care for yourself because you suffer from a serious, chronic disability and your income is less than 150% of the U.S. poverty level.
3. You have, at the time of the request, accumulated $25,000 or more in debt in the past 12 months as a result of unreimbursed medical expenses for yourself or an immediate family member, and your income is less than 150% of the U.S. poverty level.

Beginning August 15, 2012 additional information on how to make your request for a fee exemption will be available on www.uscis.gov/childhoodarrivals. Your request must be submitted and decided before you submit a request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals without a fee. In order to be considered for a fee exemption, you must provide documentary evidence to demonstrate that you meet any of the above conditions at the time that you make the request. For evidence USCIS will:

1. Accept affidavits from community-based or religious organizations to establish a requestor’s homelessness or lack of parental or other familial financial support.
2. Accept copies of tax returns, banks statement, pay stubs, or other reliable evidence of income level. Evidence can also include an affidavit from the applicant or a responsible third party attesting that the applicant does not file tax returns, has no bank accounts, and/or has no income to prove income level.
3. Accept copies of medical records, insurance records, bank statements, or other reliable evidence of unreimbursed medical expenses of at least $25,000.
4. Address factual questions through requests for evidence (RFEs).

Yes. USCIS will implement a supervisory review process in all four Service Centers to ensure a consistent process for considering requests for deferred action for childhood arrivals. USCIS will require officers to elevate for supervisory review those cases that involve certain factors.

No. You cannot file a motion to reopen or reconsider, and cannot appeal the decision if USCIS denies your request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals. USCIS will not review its discretionary determinations. You may request a review using the Service Request Management Tool (SRMT) process if you met all of the process guidelines and you believe that your request was denied due to one of the following errors:

1. USCIS denied the request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals based on abandonment and you claim that you did respond to a Request for Evidence within the prescribed time; or
2. USCIS mailed the Request for Evidence to the wrong address, even though you had submitted a Form AR-11, Change of Address, or changed your address online atwww.uscis.gov before the issuance of the Request for Evidence.

Yes. Unless terminated, individuals whose case is deferred pursuant to the consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals process will not be placed into removal proceedings or removed from the United States for a period of two years. You may request consideration for an extension of that period of deferred action. As long as you were not above the age of 30 on June 15, 2012, you may request a renewal after turning 31. Your request for an extension will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Yes. If USCIS decides to defer action for additional periods beyond the initial two years, you must also have requested an extension of your employment authorization.

Yes. USCIS personnel responsible for considering requests for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals will receive special training.

Circumstantial evidence may be used to establish the following guidelines and factual showings if available documentary evidence is insufficient or lacking and shows that:

• You were physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012;
• You came to the United States before reaching your 16th birthday;
• You satisfy the five year continuous residence requirement, as long as you present direct evidence of your continued residence in the United States for a portion of the required five-year period and the circumstantial evidence is used only to fill in gaps in the length of continuous residence demonstrated by the direct evidence; and
• Any travel outside the United States during the five years of required continuous presence was brief, casual, and innocent.

However, USCIS will not accept circumstantial evidence as proof of any of the following guidelines to demonstrate that you:

• Were under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012; and
• Are currently in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a general education development certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States.

For example, if you do not have documentary proof of your presence in the United States on June 15, 2012, you may nevertheless be able to satisfy the guideline circumstantially by submitting credible documentary evidence that you were present in the United States shortly before and shortly after June 15, 2012, which under the facts presented may give rise to an inference of your presence on June 15, 2012 as well. However, circumstantial evidence will not be accepted to establish that you have graduated high school. You must submit direct documentary evidence to satisfy that you meet this guideline.

Yes. All documents NOT in English, must be translated.

For more information, go to uscis.gov.

The Department of Homeland Security is not collecting information about your parents or other family members. There are no questions on the applications that ask about your family. They also said in their memos that they would not use information about family members that was obtained through deferred action applications to go after family members.

Yes, your college tuition and expenses count as expenses.

If you have savings, own a house or other property, as well as stock or other assets or property of value.

I would list the city in the US that was near your place of entry. You can also just list the U.S. state.

We recommend that you send your correspondence via certified mail with return receipt requested or via FedEx with delivery confirmation. Also, don’t forget to keep an exact copy of any document you send to immigration authorities.

You should list your name exactly as it appears on your birth certificate, including both last names.

Make sure you follow the instructions carefully. You need to list a home address.

If you want to review of your applications, you should contact an attorney or an organization that is recognized from the Board of Immigration Appeals and is authorized to provide legal advice. Reviewing an application and advising you regarding your forms is legal advice. For resources in your area visit immigrantjustice.org/dreamers or dreamrelief.org.

When it asks about income, you should list all income (that means all the money you make), even if you are paid in cash. Don’t forget that you are signing the applications under oath and must disclose all information truthfully. For more specific information, you should contact an attorney or an organization that is recognized from the Board of Immigration Appeals and is authorized to provide legal advice.

If you are not working and have no expenses that you are responsible for paying on your own, then you should say $0 income and $0 expenses.