St. Louis Immigration Attorney Jim Hacking on NSC report of delays in processing of DACA applications

Clients and potential clients have been complaining about processing times on their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival cases.  The American Immigration Lawyers Association (a group that we belong to) has done some investigating and the results are interesting.  AILA received 400 complaints, including 100 that have been pending for more than a year.  Almost two-thirds of the delayed cases are sitting at the Nebarska Service Center (283 in total).

AILA members indicated in over half of the cases that they were not aware of any unusual circumstances surrounding the long-delayed DACA cases.  In the other cases, several factors appeared in many of the cases:

• the requestor had a minor criminal history (drinking and driving, juvenile adjudications, gang offenses, drug and theft offenses;
• the requestor had attended an online school or was homeschooled;
• the requestor had been in removal either at the time of filing or previously;
• The requestor had some other relief pending;
• The requestor had departed the U.S. for a significant time either during or prior to the continuous residence period;
• The requestor had a small amount of supporting evidence (as described by the representing attorney).

If you have a DACA case that has been pending for some time, this information may give you some guidance as to why your case has gotten hung up.  If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call at (314) 961-8200 or email us at [email protected].