June 15 will be the second anniversary of President Obama’s dramatic announcement in 2012 of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. More than 640,000 DREAMers have applied for DACA, which provides temporary relief from deportation and a two year work permit. Applications began on August 15, 2012 and work permits began to be issued a month and a half later. Now those work permits are getting close to expiring.
People who received DACA are supposed to file their renewals four months before the work authorizations expire. The problem is, as of today, there is no form for them to file to renew.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service of the Department of Homeland Security promised that the new form would be out before the end of May, but that deadline has passed. It is scrambling now to get the form out by June 15, when the first folks need to renew by.
Here are the numbers on how many people nationally need to apply in each of the next few months:
- July: 28,000
- August: 48,000
- September: 48,000
- October: 50,000
If you have DACA and you need to renew your permit, do not file before the new form is released. It will be rejected and will just hold up the process. To find out what is going on with DACA renewal, check back here on Long Island Wins every few days in June. I will let you know as soon as renewal instructions are out.
