Judge Clyde Reese, Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Clyde Reese, Georgia Court of Appeals (Photo: John Disney / ALM)

Immigrants who have been granted temporary status to stay in the U.S. will have to keep paying out-of-state tuition after an appeals court ruled against them, saying state colleges and universities in Georgia aren't required to let them pay in-state tuition.

Georgia's state colleges and universities require verification of “lawful presence” in the U.S. for in-state tuition. The Board of Regents has said students with temporary permission to stay under a 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, don't meet that requirement.

A group of young immigrants who meet all the other requirements and who have been granted deferred action status filed a petition in April 2016 in Fulton County Superior Court asking a judge to order the university system to allow them to pay in-state tuition.