Finally! DACA is restored to its original form. What does this mean for you?

• If you are eligible, but have never received DACA, you can apply for the first time
• Advance Parole (travel permits) are an option for DACA recipients
• Any DACA recipient who received a 1-year renewal of their benefit should automatically have their protections extended to two years

This week, after a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn ordered USCIS to restore the DACA program, the agency finally published guidelines allowing new applications to be submitted. This is a monumental change for DACA-eligible immigrants, and means that new applications will be accepted by USCIS for the first time in more than 3 years.

Those who meet the following requirements may apply for DACA for the first time:

If you have DACA, it is very likely that you can apply for Advance Parole.

What is Advance Parole?

It is a process available to some immigrants (such as those with DACA, TPS, and pending adjustment applications) which allows them to travel outside of the United States and come back without putting at risk their immigration benefit. In addition, it allows immigrants to have a lawful entry, which can be very helpful to Adjust their Status and become green card holders.

The Trump administration has taken a harder stance on immigration in many ways. One those is in the number of H1-B visas it’s denying. A new analysis from the National Foundation for American policy found that more highly skilled foreign-born workers have been denied H1-Bs than ever before in recent years. The analysis focused on how the administration denied new applicants H1-B visas, not employees seeking an H1-B extension.

How denials are impacting employers

In the analysis, 20 of the top 25 U.S. employers report H1-B denial rates that are 10% higher for new applicants in 2020 than in 2015. Also, information technology companies reported more H1-B denials than companies in other industries. In fact, 10 IT companies had visa denial rates 20% higher in 2020 than in 2015.

Some of the IT companies that had highest rates of new applicant H1-B visa denials were the following:

All approvals are special at our office, but some of them are held very close to our hearts. This is the case for a child we represented in his Special Immigrant Juvenile Status request. This is a special immigration benefit available to children under 21 years of age and for whom a court finds that it is not in their best interest to be reunited with one or both parents due to having suffered abuse, negligence, or abandonment by their parents.

In partnership with Human Rights Initiative, a nonprofit in Dallas, we worked tirelessly to secure the approval of our client’s case. The child, a native of Belize, entered the United States with his mother in 2014. They were undocumented after their visa stay expired, but he continued to attend school and adapt to this country. Going to school in a new environment was not an easy task, but the 14 year old took advantage of every opportunity to advance his studies. In 2017, we came into the picture. HRI assigned the case to us and we held this family’s hand throughout their whole immigration process. After dedicating long hours to the case and relentlessly fighting for our client for three years, his green card was approved this month. The success of this case would not be possible without our dedicated staff and the team at HRI, who were able to identify key legal issues and relief options for our client. Congrats!

USCIS recently announced they cancelled the plans to furlough about three-quarters of the agency’s workforce at the end of this month. The agency announced they have sufficient funds to continue normal operations until at least the end of the fiscal year, which ends in September.

By cancelling the plans, USCIS avoids what has been described as the standstill of the immigration system as we know it. This would have put a stop to immigration processes at a time that many are rushing to submit their applications before the new prices go into effect on October 2 of this year.