On Nov. 20, 2014, President Obama announced an executive order to extend deferred action to increased categories of immigrants. According to his announcement, he intends to provide more spending to border security, expand high tech graduate level work permits, and grant deferred action to an expanded class of immigrants. The full text of his speech can be found here.
The deferred action program, which is the biggest part of this announcement is for the following immigrants:
- Five year continuous presence in the United States.
- Have not committed felony offenses.
- Have children or deep ties to the United States.
The exact specifics of this announcement are not clear yet and everyone will have to wait for USCIS to publish exact requirements and instructions for application of deferred action. However, this program sounds almost exactly like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Program (DACA) which was announced on June 15, 2012. After that announcement, the first petitions were accepted by USCIS in August 2012. It is anticipated that the earliest that an application can be sent to USCIS will be in a few months. More information will provided to this site as information becomes available.
If you have any questions or concerns about this program and whether you or a loved one is eligible, please contact my office and obtain a free consultation. Our telephone number is (801) 436-7529. Our office has helped hundreds of immigrants with all kinds of immigration petitions, especial petitions for deferred action. This is a major announcement and demand for this program is anticipated to be very high.