U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) encourages the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to submit requests for renewal of DACA 150 to 120 days before their current DACA could expire.
Undocumented youth living here under DACA will need to remember that their temporary legal status and their work permits will expire if they fail to submit renewal requests at the right time. Temporary status under DACA is valid for two years. Only those who renew their status will be able to remain here legally for two more years. DACA recipients who fall out of status will not be able to remain here legally. If encountered by immigration authorities, they would be placed in removal proceedings.
Timely filing will help the youth to make sure that USCIS has enough time to consider their requests and that they get their temporary status renewed before their current status expires. USCIS is mailing renewal reminder notices to those who have received DACA. Notices are mailed 180 days prior to the date on which their current deferred action status will expire.
USCIS will continue to accept initial and renewal requests from undocumented youth eligible for deferred action status under the DACA program that was implemented in 2012. The injunction to temporarily block President Obama’s immigration action applies only to the programs announced by the President in November 2014 and not to the DACA program implemented in 2012. So the undocumented youth eligible for the 2012 DACA program need not worry as their initial and renewal requests will be accepted by USCIS. However, those eligible for the new program announced in 2014 need to wait until the court order to block the program is overturned.
DACA recipients can apply for renewal if they meet the initial DACA requirements and if they did not travel abroad after August 15, 2012, without obtaining advance parole documents and if they have resided continuously in the U.S. since they submitted their requests for initial DACA up to the present time. Moreover, they must not have been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors.