Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
What were the age and arrival date requirements for DACA in 2012?
Executive Summary
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) eligibility announced June 15, 2012 required applicants to have entered the United States before their 16th birthday, to have continuously resided in the U.S. since June 15, 2007, to have been physically present on June 15, 2012, and to be under 31 years old on that date (born on or after June 16, 1981). Additional rules included being at least 15 at application (with narrow exceptions), meeting educational or military service criteria, and having no serious criminal convictions [1] [2].
1. Why the “under 31 on June 15, 2012” cutoff mattered — and how it was applied
The DACA memo set a firm age ceiling: applicants had to be younger than 31 as of June 15, 2012, meaning anyone born on or after June 16, 1981 met the age threshold. This cutoff was designed to focus relief on a cohort that had come of working age but were still considered to have arrived as children. Multiple contemporaneous and later summaries restate that age ceiling as a central eligibility test, and they describe its practical effect: people who turned 31 on or before that date were categorically excluded from DACA consideration [2] [3]. The sources note that this non‑flexible date is distinct from other requirements like continuous residence, which allowed limited interruptions characterized as “brief, casual, and innocent” [4].
2. The “came before 16” rule and the June 15, 2007 residency anchor
DACA required that applicants must have arrived in the United States before their 16th birthday and have resided continuously since June 15, 2007. The arrival-before-16 provision targeted individuals who entered as children, while the five-year continuous residence test tied eligibility to a specific historical window and limited the pool to those with established ties to the country. Sources uniformly report that brief, casual absences did not necessarily break the continuous residence requirement, but longer undocumented departures could disqualify applicants [1] [5]. These dual constraints—age at entry and a fixed residence start date—worked together to narrow the eligible population practically and legally.
3. Presence on June 15, 2012 and lack of lawful status: the instantaneous gates
Beyond age and arrival timing, DACA demanded that applicants be physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012 and that they had no lawful immigration status on that date. This instantaneous presence requirement meant that temporary departures around that date could eliminate eligibility, and having a lawful status such as a visa on that date removed a person from the class DACA sought to protect. Multiple policy outlines repeat these simultaneity conditions as essential gates: they anchor eligibility to a single snapshot in time rather than to rolling criteria, which made both outreach and legal interpretation more straightforward but also harsher for those who narrowly missed the dates [2] [6].
4. Minimum age, education/military criteria, and criminal bars that shaped who could apply
DACA also imposed a minimum applicant age—generally 15 at filing—with exceptions for those in removal proceedings or with orders—and required applicants to be enrolled in school, have graduated, hold a GED, or be honorably discharged from the armed forces. The policy imposed criminal bars: no felony convictions and no significant misdemeanors or multiple misdemeanors, a standard emphasized in all program descriptions. These programmatic conditions meant that eligibility was not merely chronological or geographic but tied to behavioral and institutional markers of integration and public safety, which the government used to limit relief to those seen as less risky and more assimilated [1] [3].
5. How secondary sources and dates confirm the core rules — and where summaries diverge
Analyses from the DACA announcement era and later summaries consistently repeat the same core rules: arrival before 16, continuous residence since June 15, 2007, physical presence on June 15, 2012, and age under 31 on that date [1] [2]. Later descriptive pieces (2023–2025) reiterate those anchors while adding context about filing age exceptions and the program’s evolving legal history, including attempts at expansion or rescission after 2012 [6] [5]. Minor divergences among the provided analyses concern phrasing—some emphasize the “at least 15 at application” rule more prominently; others focus on the continuous‑residence nuance. Taken together, the sources corroborate a stable set of factual eligibility dates and age cutoffs established by the June 15, 2012 memorandum [4].