Can DACA Recipients Adjust Status to Get a Green Card?

A DACA recipient can pursue a green card through adjustment of status, but only if they can satisfy a requirement DACA itself does not meet: having been lawfully admitted or paroled into the United States. Whether the DACA green card adjustment of status route is open to you depends on how you first entered the country, whether you have a qualifying sponsor, and whether you can bridge the gap between DACA and lawful entry through advance parole, a grandfathered petition, or consular processing with a waiver.

Why DACA by Itself Does Not Qualify You

DACA gives you protection from deportation and a work permit. It does not give you lawful immigration status. USCIS has stated that “deferred action does not confer lawful immigration status” and does not provide “a path to citizenship.”¹ You are authorized to be present during your DACA period, but that presence is not the same as a lawful admission.

Federal law requires an adjustment applicant to have been “inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States,” to have an immigrant visa immediately available, to be admissible, and to be physically present when filing.² Most DACA recipients hit the wall on the first requirement. If you were brought across the border as a child without going through a port of entry, you were never formally admitted or paroled. An approved family petition does not cure that gap on its own.

If You Entered on a Visa and Overstayed

Not everyone with DACA entered without inspection. Some were brought in on a valid visa, such as a tourist visa, and stayed after it expired. If that is your situation, you already have a lawful admission on record.

A prior lawful admission satisfies the “inspected and admitted” requirement of INA Section 245(a) even if you later fell out of status.² Combined with an approved immigrant petition and an available visa number, it can let you adjust inside the United States without leaving. The practical gap is large: a DACA recipient who entered on a visa and later married a U.S. citizen may be able to file for the green card entirely from within the country, while someone who crossed without inspection as a toddler faces additional steps.

Immediate Relatives Get Extra Room, But Not on Entry

If you are the spouse of a U.S. citizen, the unmarried child under 21 of a U.S. citizen, or the parent of a U.S. citizen who is at least 21, you are an immediate relative. That classification waives several bars that would otherwise sink your adjustment application.

USCIS policy provides that an immediate relative may still adjust status even if they have worked without authorization, are not in lawful immigration status when they file, or have failed to maintain continuous lawful status since entering the country.³ For a DACA recipient, that matters. Years of employment on an EAD and the absence of any lawful status will not, by themselves, block the application.

These exemptions do not touch the entry requirement. If you came into the country without inspection, you still have to solve that problem, whether through advance parole, Section 245(i), or consular processing.

Advance Parole as a Way to Create a Lawful Entry

For DACA recipients who entered without inspection, advance parole has been the most common way to establish the lawful entry adjustment requires. Advance parole, requested on Form I-131, lets you travel abroad and be paroled back into the United States on return.⁴ That parole satisfies the admitted-or-paroled requirement of Section 245(a).

Qualifying Reasons for Travel

USCIS does not grant advance parole for vacation. Requests must fall into humanitarian purposes (such as visiting a seriously ill relative or attending a funeral), educational purposes (such as studying abroad or academic research), or employment purposes (such as overseas work assignments, conferences, or training). You will need to document the specific reason.

Current Uncertainty for DACA Recipients

Advance parole for DACA recipients is less predictable than it once was. A January 2025 executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security to exercise parole authority “only on a case-by-case basis” and “only when an individual alien demonstrates urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.”⁵ USCIS has continued to process some applications, but approval is not assured. Talk to an immigration attorney about the current processing environment before making any travel plans.

Even with advance parole in hand, re-entry is not automatic. Customs and Border Protection officers keep discretion at the port of entry and can deny admission. Travel on advance parole always carries some risk, and that risk has grown.

The Unlawful Presence Bars If You Leave Without Advance Parole

Leaving the United States as a DACA recipient without advance parole can trigger the unlawful presence bars, which make you inadmissible after departure:

More than 180 days but less than one year of unlawful presence in a single stay, followed by departure, triggers a three-year bar on readmission.
One year or more of unlawful presence triggers a ten-year bar.

Two protections matter for DACA recipients. Time before you turned 18 does not count as unlawful presence.⁶ And you do not accrue unlawful presence during an active DACA grant.¹

The Board of Immigration Appeals addressed advance parole travel directly in Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, holding that a person who leaves and returns under a grant of advance parole has not made a “departure” for purposes of these bars.⁷ Properly approved advance parole travel should not trigger the three- or ten-year bar. Leaving without advance parole almost certainly would, and for anyone who accumulated unlawful presence between turning 18 and receiving DACA, the consequences can be severe.

Section 245(i): A Rare Path for People Grandfathered by an Old Petition

INA Section 245(i) lets certain people adjust status even if they entered without inspection or are otherwise barred from adjustment, in exchange for an extra $1,000 penalty fee.⁸

To qualify, you must be the beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition or labor certification properly filed on or before April 30, 2001. If the qualifying filing was made after January 14, 1998, you also must have been physically present in the United States on December 21, 2000.⁹ Spouses and children of the principal beneficiary can be grandfathered too.

Most DACA recipients were small children in 2001, so this is uncommon. It can still apply if a parent had a qualifying labor certification or visa petition pending by the deadline and you were listed as a derivative beneficiary. The filing uses Supplement A to Form I-485 along with the $1,000 fee.⁸ It is worth asking a parent whether any such petition was ever filed on their behalf.

Consular Processing With an I-601A Waiver

When adjustment inside the United States is not available, the remaining route runs through a U.S. consulate abroad. You leave the country, attend an immigrant visa interview, and enter as a lawful permanent resident. The obvious risk is that departure itself can trigger the three- or ten-year unlawful presence bar.

The I-601A provisional unlawful presence waiver exists to solve this. It lets you request a waiver of those bars from inside the United States, before you leave for your consular interview.¹⁰ To qualify, you must show that denial of admission would cause “extreme hardship” to a qualifying relative, meaning a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or parent. USCIS weighs factors including the qualifying relative’s health, financial impact, family ties, and whether relocation abroad is realistic, and no single factor is automatically enough.¹¹

The I-601A filing fee is $795.¹² Approval covers only the unlawful presence ground. Other inadmissibility issues, such as prior removal orders or certain criminal history, require separate waivers, and approval does not guarantee the consular officer will issue the visa. People in removal proceedings that have not been administratively closed are ineligible for the I-601A.¹⁰

What Filing Adjustment of Status Actually Involves

Once your eligibility lines up (a lawful entry on record, an approved visa petition, and an available visa number), the adjustment filing goes to USCIS as a packet. The core form is I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.¹³ For a family-based case, Form I-130 can be filed concurrently if your sponsor has not already filed one.

Other forms typically included:

Form I-765 for employment authorization while the case is pending.
Form I-131 for a travel document that preserves your ability to travel during processing.
Form I-864, the Affidavit of Support, completed by your sponsor.
Form I-693, the immigration medical examination, completed by a USCIS-designated civil surgeon.

Supporting evidence includes birth and marriage certificates, passport copies, photographs, financial records for your sponsor, and, critically for a DACA recipient, proof of your lawful entry or parole (an advance parole document or an I-94 record).¹³

USCIS filing fees for applications filed after April 1, 2024:¹²

Form I-485: $1,440
Form I-130: $625 online, $675 paper
Form I-765: $260 when filed with the I-485
Form I-131: $630
Form I-864: no separate USCIS fee
Medical exam: varies by civil surgeon and includes any lab work or vaccinations

After filing, USCIS sends a receipt notice, then a biometrics appointment where fingerprints, a photo, and a signature are taken for background checks. An in-person interview may follow. If approved, the physical green card arrives by mail. Processing times vary from several months to well over a year depending on the field office and case type.¹⁴

Keep DACA Active While the Green Card Case Is Pending

Do not let DACA lapse while adjustment is pending. If your DACA expires before renewal is processed, you start accruing unlawful presence again unless you are under 18, and you lose employment authorization until a new EAD is issued.¹ USCIS encourages filing DACA renewal requests 120 to 150 days before the current approval expires.

A denied adjustment does not automatically end DACA, but USCIS keeps discretion to terminate a DACA grant at any time.¹ Staying current on renewals keeps a fallback in place if the green card path stalls.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions – DACA
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1255 – Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
3
USCIS. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7, Part B, Chapter 8 – Inapplicability of Bars to Adjustment
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records
5
The White House. Protecting the American People Against Invasion
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 US Code 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012)
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through INA 245(i) Adjustment
9
eCFR. 8 CFR 245.10 – Adjustment of Status Upon Payment of Additional Sum
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers
11
USCIS. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 9, Part B, Chapter 5 – Extreme Hardship Considerations and Factors
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions on the USCIS Fee Rule
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Adjustment of Status