DACA Recipients: How to Apply for a Travel Document

If you have applied for and received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), this may be the first opportunity you’ve had in a long time to travel outside the U.S. and return legally. Something called “Advance Parole” makes it possible for you to leave the U.S. without losing your DACA status.This possibility is neither automatic nor risk-free, however.Risks of Traveling With Advance Parole as a DACA RecipientJust to be clear, your DACA status is not enough by itself to allow you to leave the U.S. and be admitted back upon your return. You should not even attempt to travel without first applying for and receiving an Advance Parole Document. If you leave without Advance Parole, you will likely be denied reentry and your DACA approval will be canceled.However, being approved for Advance Parole does not guarantee your safe return either. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer whom you will meet upon your return can deny your entry if he or she thinks you are “inadmissible,” most likely for health or security reasons. (It’s even possible that you would be found inadmissible based on your past unlawful presence in the U.S. and a three- or ten-year bar would be placed upon your return. Though recent legal decisions suggest that this is unlikely, it’ an unsettled part of immigration law and may change at any moment.) Plus, you’ll be in a weaker arguing position than someone who has, say, held a U.S. green card (lawful permanent residence) for a number of years.Worse yet, if you have an outstanding order of removal or deportation on your record (perhaps because an immigration court ordered you deported, or you neglected to show up for a court hearing), leaving the U.S. could be viewed as your having followed through with the deportation. You would not be allowed to return to the U.S. for many years (the exact length depends on the reason for which you were ordered deported). Contact the Law Office of Robert L. Berlin at (904) 296-9474 if you are in this situation. The Law Office of Robert L. Berlin may be able to reopen the immigration proceedings and have them closed based on your DACA grant.Who Is Eligible to Apply for Advance Parole as a DACA RecipientSimply wanting to take a vacation is not enough to qualify DACA recipients for an Advance Parole travel document. You will need to show not only that you have been approved for DACA, but that you have a reason for traveling, either for:

• urgent humanitarian purposes, which include medical assistance, to attend a family member’s funeral, visiting a sick relative, or some other urgent family-related matter
• educational purposes, including taking part in a study abroad program or doing academic research, or
• employment purposes, including overseas assignments or client meetings, interviews, conferences, training, and travel needed to pursue a job with a foreign employer in the United States.

Along with your application (described next), you will need to supply authoritative documentary evidence to back up whichever of these purposes you claim.If you are in any doubt as to whether your reason for travel is sufficient, contact that Law Office of Robert L. Berlin at (904) 296-9474.If Your Application for Advance Parole is GrantedIf USCIS approves you for Advance Parole, it will send you a document, known as Form I-512L, Authorization for Parole of an Alien into the United States. Take this document (the original, not a copy) with you when you leave the U.S. -- you’ll need to show it before getting on the plane, ship, bus, or train headed back to the U.S. and to the CBP officer when you return.Look closely at the form, because it contains the last date you can use it to return. Make sure you don’t stay outside the U.S. past that date.