How do I get from DACA or TPS to a green card?

3 min read · May 17, 2026

Travel on Advance Parole and return — for DACA recipients this requires a U.S. citizen spouse or other adjustment-eligible petitioner; for TPS holders the 2022 USCIS policy update made the path significantly easier.

Both DACA and TPS are non-immigrant statuses with no direct path to a green card. The way most clients in these programs actually obtain permanent residence is by acquiring an admission (via Advance Parole travel and re-entry) and then adjusting status under INA § 245(a) — provided an underlying immigrant petition is approvable.

The Advance Parole + adjustment maneuver

The core insight: INA § 245(a) allows adjustment of status only for applicants who were "inspected and admitted or paroled" into the U.S. Most DACA and TPS holders originally entered without inspection and could not adjust. But if they leave the U.S. on Advance Parole and re-enter as a parolee, they have been "paroled into the United States" — satisfying § 245(a)'s threshold.

What this unlocks

• DACA recipient + U.S. citizen spouse — file I-130 + I-131 (Advance Parole for educational/employment/humanitarian travel) + travel + return on AP + file I-485 + I-765 + I-131. Total time from filing AP to green card: roughly 18–30 months.
• TPS holder + U.S. citizen spouse, child (21+), or parent — same pattern, plus the recent USCIS policy update (clarifying that TPS-AP travel is an admission for adjustment purposes) makes the case cleaner.
• TPS holder with an LPR spouse or parent — eligible after the priority date for F2A becomes current (currently 2–3 years).

The Advance Parole categories

To get AP, the applicant must articulate a qualifying reason:

• Educational — academic study or research abroad.
• Employment — overseas job assignment, conference, training.
• Humanitarian — visiting a sick relative, attending a funeral, urgent medical treatment abroad.

USCIS expects documentation: a school's letter, an employer's letter, a treating physician's letter from abroad. Pleasure travel (vacation, tourism) does not qualify.

The risks

• CBP refusal at re-entry. Even with approved AP, the CBP officer at the port of entry can refuse parole based on misrepresentation, criminal history, or other inadmissibility grounds. This is the single biggest risk of the maneuver.
• Triggering the unlawful-presence bar. Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012) held that AP departure does not trigger the 3- or 10-year bars under INA § 212(a)(9)(B). This is well-settled doctrine but litigation continues at the margins.
• DACA-AP rescission risk. The DACA AP program is subject to litigation and could be enjoined. A trip planned today is not necessarily a trip safe to take in 3 months.
• The trip must actually happen. USCIS adjudicates the I-485 based on the parole admission. A canceled trip means no admission and no § 245(a) eligibility.

The non-AP pathway: 245(i) grandfathering

A small but important population qualifies under INA § 245(i) — if an I-130 or labor certification was filed for them (or a qualifying relative) on or before April 30, 2001 and they were physically present in the U.S. on December 21, 2000, they can adjust status from inside the U.S. regardless of how they entered, by paying the current filing fee (check uscis.gov for the current amount). This grandfathering survives subsequent immigration history. We screen every long-term DACA/TPS client for § 245(i) eligibility on intake.

How we handle this

We screen for every adjustment pathway — § 245(i) grandfathering, U.S. citizen spouse/child/parent qualifier, employer sponsorship through H-1B-to-EB-2/EB-3, EB-1 self-petition, U/T/VAWA — and stack the strongest pathway. The AP+adjustment maneuver is the most common workhorse, and we structure it from the qualifying-travel evidence to the I-485 filing as a single integrated sequence. The goal is to move clients from temporary status to permanent status before the next change in policy.