Form I-821D, Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

The fee to request consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals, including employment authorization and biometric services, is $520. USCIS will not waive this fee. In very rare circumstances, there is a DACA fee exemption.

A fee exemption for DACA is available in very limited circumstances. To be considered for a fee exemption, submit a letter and supporting documents demonstrating that you meet one of the following conditions:

• You are under 18 years of age, homeless, in foster care, or under 18 years of age and otherwise lacking any parental or other familial support and your income is less than 150% of the U.S. poverty level;
• You cannot care for yourself because you suffer from a serious chronic disability and your income is less than 150% of the U.S. poverty level; or
• You, at the time of the request, accumulated $10,000 or more in debt in the past 12 months as the result of unreimbursed medical expenses for yourself or an immediate family member and your income is less than 150% of the U.S. poverty level.

If you believe that you are eligible, you must request the DACA fee exemption before you file a request for consideration of deferred action. If you submit Forms I-821D, I-765 and I-765WS to a USCIS lockbox facility without a fee and there's not an approved fee exemption request, USCIS will reject the application and return it to you. Follow USCIS steps for a fee exemption request.

Before departing the United States, DACA recipients should obtain an advance parole travel document.

USCIS will only grant advance parole for travel outside the United States to DACA recipients pursuant to guidance which provides for a determination that parole is for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. In other words, persons with DACA status can’t travel for any reason. Traveling to a home country for vacation, to reconnect with family or for a friend’s wedding are not valid reasons to obtain DACA travel authorization.

According to previous guidance from USCIS, they will generally grant DACA travel authorization for the following reasons:

• Travel to support the national security interests of the United States;
• Travel to support U.S. federal law enforcement interests;
• Travel to obtain life-sustaining medical treatment that is not otherwise available to the alien in the United States; or
• Travel needed to support the immediate safety, wellbeing or care of an immediate relative, particularly minor children of the alien.

The new DACA rule helps to bolster the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Although DACA was already a matter of policy, the new rule is an effort by the Biden administration to strengthen the legal standing of the program to combat various attempts to terminate it. When it went into effect on October 31, 2022, the rule replaced the 2012 memo issued by the Obama administration. Learn more about new DACA rule.