Raw Transcript:

Introduction: You ask we answer your immigration questions. Simple. And now your host immigration lawyer Jacob Sapochnick.

Jacob: Thank you for joining our show, listening to us. I’m getting a lot of emails recently for people asking questions about the new executive action mostly and our first several episodes are going to talk about that. We’re going to try to break it down as much as we can. I encourage you to send me emails, give me your questions. We are very, very excited to answer them and I’m very, very excited about this podcast as well.

One of the questions that I’ve been getting a lot is what is this new DAPA program, the deferred action for parents, for parents of US citizens.

So the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability as they call DAPA is essentially a prosecutorial discretion program which means that they decide to give that … those parents a break in a way. It’s going to be administrated by the US immigration service and it provides a temporary relief from removal and deportation and it’s called Deferred Action.

So they are basically saying we’re not going to make you a priority for removal, we’re not going to make you deportable at this point, it’s only temporarily and they’re going to be illegible for work authorization for unauthorized parents of US citizens or a lawful permanent resident. So green card holders … if you know that green card holders here they are kids, their parents are undocumented, they could also benefit from this program which is great.

The DAPA program … it is very similar to the DACA program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in crucial respects. But the eligibility is kind of different. So let’s kind of go over to some of these issues.

The program will be open to people that are … that have a US citizens or legal permanent resident son or daughter as of November 20, 2014. They’ve continually resided in United States since before January 1st of 2010. They’re physically present in United States on November 20th, 2014 and at the time of applying. They have no lawful immigration status on November 20th, 2014. So, you cannot be in legal status. I mean it sounds weird but it is. If you have a tourist visa or a student visa and you’re there you can’t. You have to be unlawful.

They are not an enforcement priority which means they’re not criminals and it’s defined to include people that are convictions like drugs and misdemeanors, suspected of gang involvement, terrorism and any other unlawful entries to the US. I guess the list of criminal activities we’ll probably get it once the rules are going to be published. They present no other factors that would make them inappropriate candidates for this deferred action. So they have not committed multiple crimes, they have not committed any fraud and they have to pass a background check.

So as long as you meet all these things DAPA will give you three years of work permit and a right to stay here. The DAPA program should be available, we believe, within 90 to maximum 180 days. It could take up to six months for them to implement it. So it’s not … if anybody is offering you to do it now it’s not happening.

So in a nutshell this is what it is, this is what the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability is in this short audio clip. Hopefully you are getting some good value from this show and if you do please send me an email and any of your questions. Look forward to seeing you here in our next episode coming up real soon.

Closing: Thank you for listening to the Ask My Immigration Lawyer Podcast, the show that’s dedicated to answering your immigration questions. Simple as that. See you next week for another round of questions and much needed answers.