TheDeferredActionLawyer

Jose, It's all about the database. If there is no record of the incident then you don't need to worry about it. Peace, Ian

Jose, From our site:http://thedeferredactionlawyer.com/eligibility/ It is possible that the government will consider any of the following: - Any kind of arrest or a charge that has been dismissed - Charges brought against you as a juvenile - Participation in criminal activities - Connections with any gang activity or any stops by the police where they asked you questions about gangs or affiliations to gangs Peace, Ian

Our firm is charging $535 for both forms, not including the government fees of $465 for at total of $1,000 unless you have a criminal conviction or some other extenuating circumstances. In that case the total fees are $1,200.

my pleasure!

Itzel, I listened to the stakeholder's call and pulled out the top 15 highlights from it: 15 Important Highlights from the August 3rd, 2012 DHS Stakeholder’s Meeting on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. If anyone wants to listen to the actual call here is an audio file for you. It's about 65 meg and lasts about 30-35 minutes. If you hear some background noise it's me and one of my paralegals talking while I recorded the call on my iPhone. Peace, Ian

Good points both of you. Here is a link to a blog post I wrote summarizing an article by the President of AILA on this issue: Do DREAMers really need a lawyer? An excellent blog post by Laura Lichter the President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) It summarizes the scenarios where a lawyer could help.

Itzel, Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad that corn metaphor resonated with you. What an amazing story. Thanks for sharing it with me. What a powerful question to the country that raised you. Hopefully we'll all make it a moot point. Besides a lot of great information on our site, we've got a Top 10 Things Every DREAMer needs to know about Deferred Action that folks can get by signing up on our list. http://thedeferredactionlawyer.com/ Peace, Ian

Itzel, Please call me Ian. Thanks for the kind welcome. This is really cool what you guys are doing here. It's great to see people having access to this kind of technology and being able to put it to such effective use for the greater good. For sure on DACA. I can understand that there is finally some hope for you and your fellow Dreamers. Hopefully this is just the beginning and that the full Dream Act will be passed soon. I believe that Obama thinks it's the right thing to do just like Bush did and tried to push, but that they both ran in to a political reality that passing any kind of immigration reform was going to be difficult. My point was that the activism of DREAMers and their courage to come out with support from activists, advocacy organizations and the greater community helped to force Obama's hand. So it's a great lesson and encouragement on political activism and the power of the people. Totally understand on the cost. The catch 22 of having more limited options for employment without a SSN or driver's license because someone is undocumented leading to a greater challenge of coming up with the money to become documented and get a work authorization permit is not lost on me. Our firm plans to have longer term payment options for people who need help. I know that there will also be lots of pro bono and low cost legal service opportunities available with non-profits and other types of advocacy organizations which we will be supporting as well. Understood your concern on the potential length of time on the process. At this point it's all speculation, but the fact more people applying could slow it down is a real consideration. The good thing is that the administration is still going to have a lot of political pressure to move people through the process and if your supporting documentation is all good the first time up and you don't have a criminal record you can at least have the chance to move through faster. Would love to get your feedback on my latest blog post: Understanding Mexican Emigration – Can We Shake Our Neighbor’s Not So Invisible Hand? Peace, Ian

My name is Ian Benouis and I am an immigration attorney from Austin, TX I just joined the forum. Here is some more information on DACA from a Deferred Action And Related Relief For Experts Seminar that I recently attended that includes some useful information presented at the USCIS field office in San Diego as well. I tried to share the entire blog post here but I guess it was too long.