Hillary Walsh, founder and CEO of New Frontier Immigration Law, was recently featured in US Business News in an article titled “Can DACA Recipients Qualify for Green Cards Without Marriage?” The feature addresses whether marriage is the only realistic route from temporary protection to lawful permanent residence.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, has been in place since 2012. For certain people who arrived in the U.S. as children, it offers protection from deportation and permission to work. However, DACA does not itself create a direct path to a green card or permanent residence.
Because of that gap, many DACA recipients have been told that marriage to a U.S. citizen is their most practical option for pursuing a green card. The US Business News feature highlights why that answer may be too narrow for some people.
Attorney Walsh has focused on whether certain DACA recipients may qualify for other immigration paths based on their individual histories and circumstances. Some people may have employment-based options that deserve careful review.
An employment-based path is not available to every DACA recipient, and DACA status alone does not make someone eligible for a green card. Immigration history can affect whether a person has a viable route forward, including issues involving entry to the U.S. and periods of unlawful presence.
Marriage is not automatically the only possibility. A careful review can help you understand whether another lawful path may apply to your situation.
Green card eligibility depends on more than a person’s current DACA status. The details of how you entered the U.S. and your prior immigration history can influence which options may be available.
That is why general advice can be incomplete. Two DACA recipients may have very different legal options even when their current protection looks similar. Understanding those differences can help you avoid relying on assumptions about what you can or cannot pursue.
Walsh brings a legal education and appellate perspective to this discussion. She has taught immigration law to attorneys through the State Bar of Arizona and has handled numerous appellate immigration matters.
The US Business News feature helps bring attention to an important point for DACA recipients: some people may have green card options beyond marriage, including certain employment-based paths, but eligibility depends on the facts of each case.
At New Frontier Immigration Law, we help you understand the immigration options that may apply to your circumstances. If you are protected by DACA and want to learn whether a path toward lawful permanent residence may be available, contact our team to discuss your situation.
Hillary Walsh is one of America’s foremost immigration attorneys — a nationally recognized advocate whose career has been built case by case, client by client, in the most challenging corners of immigration law.
For over a decade, Hillary has represented immigrants, asylum seekers, trafficking survivors, and families facing deportation in proceedings before the Ninth, Sixth, and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and immigration courts across the country. Her legal expertise spans removal defense, asylum, VAWA, T Visa, U Visa, green cards, and naturalization — the full breadth of immigration law, with particular depth in protection-based relief for vulnerable populations.
Her work has reached the highest levels of American jurisprudence. Hillary was invited to author an amicus curiae brief for a U.S. Supreme Court case — a distinction extended to attorneys whose command of immigration law is recognized at the national level.
Hillary founded New Frontier Immigration Law in 2019 with a simple but radical belief: that every person deserves a fighting chance, and that there is a solution for every problem. That legal philosophy has guided thousands of client outcomes across Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and communities nationwide.
She doesn’t just represent clients in immigration court; she shapes how immigration law is argued, understood, and applied.
