Who Qualifies for DACA: Residence, Education, and Criminal History

You qualify for DACA if you were born on or after June 16, 1981, entered the United States before your 16th birthday, have lived here continuously since June 15, 2007, were physically present and without lawful status on June 15, 2012, are currently in school or have a high school diploma, GED, or honorable military discharge, and have no disqualifying criminal record. One major caveat sits on top of all of that: a federal court injunction currently blocks USCIS from approving any new initial DACA requests, so meeting the criteria as a first-time applicant does not mean you will receive a decision. Renewals for existing recipients are still being processed.¹

Age and Entry Cutoffs

Two date-of-birth rules control eligibility, and neither has any flexibility. You must have been under 31 on June 15, 2012, meaning you were born on or after June 16, 1981. You must also have entered the United States before your 16th birthday.¹ If you crossed the border on your 16th birthday or later, you do not qualify, even by a day.

To file an initial request, you generally must also be at least 15 years old. The exception is if you are already in removal proceedings or have a final removal order or voluntary departure order, in which case the age-15 floor does not apply.²

No Lawful Status on June 15, 2012

DACA is only for people who lacked lawful immigration status on June 15, 2012. That covers those who entered without inspection and those whose visa or authorized stay had expired before that date. If you held a valid student visa or any other lawful status on June 15, 2012, you are not eligible, regardless of what happened afterward.¹

Continuous Residence Since June 15, 2007

You must have lived in the United States continuously from June 15, 2007, through the date you file. You must also have been physically present in the country on June 15, 2012, and physically present when you submit your application.¹

Short trips abroad do not automatically break continuous residence, but only if they happened between June 15, 2007, and August 15, 2012. USCIS treats a departure as “brief, casual, and innocent” when it was short and matched its stated purpose, was not triggered by a deportation or removal order, was not the result of voluntary departure, and did not involve unlawful activity abroad.³ Any departure after August 15, 2012, without advance parole will likely end your eligibility or terminate existing DACA status.

Proof is what makes this requirement hard. USCIS expects documentation covering the entire period from 2007 forward: school transcripts, medical records, bank statements, leases, employment records, and similar paperwork. Gaps in the paper trail draw requests for additional evidence and slow processing.

Education or Military Service

At the time you file, you must meet at least one of these:

Currently enrolled in school, including elementary through college, literacy programs, and career-training courses.
Hold a high school diploma or a General Education Development (GED) certificate.
Are an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces or Coast Guard.

A dishonorable discharge or separation for misconduct does not satisfy the military option.¹ If you dropped out of school and never earned a GED, you are ineligible no matter how long you have lived here. Re-enrolling before filing is one way to fix that.

Criminal History That Disqualifies You

Three categories of criminal record are absolute bars, set by federal regulation and applied strictly.⁴

A felony conviction, meaning any federal, state, or local offense with a maximum possible sentence of more than one year, regardless of the sentence you actually received.
A significant misdemeanor. This covers misdemeanors punishable by more than five days but no more than one year when the offense involves domestic violence, sexual abuse or exploitation, burglary, unlawful firearm possession, drug distribution, or driving under the influence. It also covers any other misdemeanor for which you were sentenced to more than 90 days of actual custody.
Three or more non-significant misdemeanors that did not all occur on the same day and did not arise from the same act. Minor traffic offenses such as driving without a license are generally excluded from this count.

Even without a disqualifying conviction, USCIS looks at whether you pose a broader threat to national security or public safety. Evidence of gang involvement or a pattern of criminal activity can support a discretionary denial.

Expunged Convictions and Juvenile Adjudications

DACA treats expunged convictions and juvenile delinquency adjudications differently from most immigration programs. Under 8 CFR 236.22(b)(6), neither is a disqualifying conviction for DACA purposes.³ An expunged DUI, for example, is no longer an automatic bar. USCIS will still look at the underlying facts to decide whether you raise public safety concerns, but the conviction itself does not disqualify you.

One catch: if you were a juvenile but tried and convicted as an adult, USCIS treats that as an adult conviction, not a juvenile adjudication.³

What the Current Court Order Means for Your Application

Eligibility on paper and eligibility in practice are not the same thing right now. A federal court injunction currently prevents USCIS from approving any new initial DACA requests. USCIS will still accept an initial application and record your filing date, but the request will sit unprocessed until the courts allow it to move forward.¹

The freeze comes out of Texas v. United States. On January 17, 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the DACA Final Rule is substantively unlawful under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The court kept a stay in place that allows existing DACA recipients to continue renewing, narrowed the geographic scope of the injunction to Texas, and separated the work-authorization component from the deportation-protection component, sending the case back to the district court.⁵ As of early 2026, the district court has not issued directions on how that separation will work in practice.

What this means for you depends on which side of the line you sit on. If you have never held DACA, you can submit an initial request to preserve your filing date, but you should not expect approval until the legal picture changes. If you already have DACA, renewals are being processed normally, and filing on time is the single most important thing you can do to keep your status active.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
2
Department of Homeland Security. Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions
4
eCFR. 8 CFR 236.22
5
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Texas v. United States, No. 23-40653