[^ 8] For information about the impact of CSPA on applicants for an immigrant visa, see 9 FAM 502.1-1(D), Child Status Protection Act. On June 1, 2021, the visa becomes available again to the prospective applicant. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to update when an immigrant visa becomes available for the purpose of calculating Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) age in certain situations. The approval notice will also show you which office approved your Form I-130. 21 years 9 months old. Please see theFiling Feespage for more information. Under Section 424 of the USA PATRIOT Act, if a qualifying form was filed before September 11, 2001, then the applicant is afforded an additional 45 days of eligibility.[11]. On April 1, 2021, a visa is no longer available to the prospective applicant. In order for a family-sponsored or employment-based preference or DV applicant to qualify for CSPA, the applicant must meet the following requirements: For family-sponsored (including VAWA)[26] and employment-based preference and DV categories, an adjustment applicants CSPA age is calculated by subtracting the number of days the petition on which the applicant seeks to adjust status was pending (pending time) from the applicants age on the date the immigrant visa becomes available to the applicant (age at time of visa availability). A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. CSPA (Child Status Protection Act) may allow some of those aged-out children to immigrate, depending upon various factors. See Part M, Asylee Adjustment, Chapter 2, Eligibility Requirements, Section C, Derivative Asylee Continues to be the Spouse of Child of the Principal Asylee, Subsection 2, Derivative Asylees Ineligible for Adjustment of Status [7 USCIS-PM M.2 (C)(2)]. For derivatives of widow(er)s, a childs age is frozen on the date the Form I-360 is filed or the spousal Form I-130 is automatically converted to a widow(er)s Form I-360 (in other words, the date of the petitioners death). On February 1, 2021, a visa is no longer available to the prospective applicant under either chart and therefore, the prospective applicant is no longer eligible to file an adjustment of status application. Therefore, the applicants petition pending time is 6 months (or 182 days). If someone applies for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status as a child but turns 21 before being approved for LPR status (also known as getting a Green Card), that person can no longer be considered a child for immigration purposes. USCIS employees should not rely on the historical versions for current laws, precedent decisions, policies, directives, guidance, and procedures. If the petitioner of a pending or approved immediate relative spousal petition dies, their spouses Form I-130 automatically converts to a widow(er)s Form I-360. So long as the child was under 21 on the date of the interview, he or she will not age out of eligibility for derivative refugee status or adjustment of status. U.S. The following table outlines immigrant categories covered by CSPA, methods by which CSPA age is calculated, whether the sought to acquire requirement applies, and references to legal authorities and additional guidance. National Visa Center (NVC) Immigrant Visa Backlog Report Last updated February 2023 Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected the Department of State's ability to process immigrant visa applications. Depending on the facts of the particular case, a derivative beneficiary may become ineligible to adjust status as a derivative as a result of a transfer request because their new calculated CSPA age is no longer under 21 years of age. Applicants can determine when to file for adjustment of status by referring first to the USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin webpage and then to the DOS Visa Bulletin. [^ 20] See Section C, Immediate Relatives [7 USCIS-PM A.7(C)], Section D, Derivative Asylees [7 USCIS-PM A.7(D)], and Section E, Derivative Refugees [7 USCIS-PM A.7(E)]. However, you may choose to opt out of the automatic conversion and stay in second preference classification (F2B) if the waiting time for the second preference visa is shorter than the waiting time for the first preference visa. For DVs, the date a visa is considered available is the first day on which the principal applicants rank number is current for visa processing. See INA 204(a)(1)(I). The applicant already had a continuous 1-year period in which to seek to acquire. The History tab was added to the USCIS Policy Manual on June 11, 2021, and provides historical versions on and after that date. As per CSPA calculator, his CSPA age remains under 21 till November 2017. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating and incorporating relevant Adjudicators Field Manual (AFM) content into the USCIS Policy Manual. Approval Date If the applicant was under the age of 21 at the time of filing, the applicant is eligible for CSPA and will not age out. L. 107-208 (PDF) (August 6, 2002). VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives who do not qualify for CSPA may qualify for age-out relief under VTPVA. This guidance becomes effective October 2, 2020. If we previously denied your adjustment of status application, but you believe your CSPA age calculation is under 21 under this policy guidance, you may file a motion to reopen your application using a Notice of Appeal or Motion (Form I-290B). [^ 48] For DVs, the date a visa is considered available is the first day on which the principal applicants rank number is current for visa processing. As a K-2 nonimmigrant (child of a K-1 nonimmigrant who is the fianc(e) of a U.S. citizen), you typically get a Green Card based on your admission into the U.S. with a K-2 visa and your K-1 parents marriage to the U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of being admitted to the U.S. As long as you were under 21 when you were admitted to the United States as a K-2 nonimmigrant, you will not age out of eligibility for a Green Card. The CSPA does not solve the problem of "age outs" for all children of LPRs and other derivative beneficiaries. Review our. Unlike derivative refugees, you must be unmarried in order to qualify for a grant of derivative asylum and to qualify for a Green Card under INA section 209. Certain provisions of the CSPA apply to some categories of immigrants but not others. It helps lock in the age and preserve the "child" status of both immediate relatives and those in the preference categories. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is revising its policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to align with the Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements Final Rule, published in the Federal Register on August 3, 2020. The date of visa availability is the date of petition approval or the first day of the month of the DOS Visa Bulletin that indicates availability for that immigrant preference category and priority date according to the chart USCIS designated that month for accepting and processing the adjustment of status application, whichever is later. Furthermore, the fact of being or having been a child is common to all applicants seeking protection under the CSPA and does not constitute extraordinary circumstances. The applicants CSPA age is calculated as follows: 21 years and 4 months - 6 months = 20 years and 10 months. CSPA CALCULATOR Fill in the fields below for CSPA Calculator * Fields with *are required fields. CSPA age is frozen on the date the Form I-360 is filed or the date the Form I-130 is automatically converted to a widow(er)s Form I-360. [^ 10] See Matter of Avila-Perez (PDF), 24 I&N Dec. 78 (BIA 2007). and write this SAMPLE letter to the NVC when sending the documents. Pending time includes administrative review, such as motions and appeals, but does not include consular returns. CSPA may still apply for a preference applicant who did not have an adjustment application pending on August 6, 2002, and who did not timely seek to acquire. To create an account, you will need your passport. In order to protect children from aging out of their cases at age 21, CSPA may extend the eligibility of the applicant, should the applicant meet the CSPA requirements. [9], CSPA does not apply to adjustment applications that were subject to a final determination prior to the effective date. VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives who do not qualify for CSPA may qualify for age-out relief under VTPVA. In order to qualify as a stepchild, the marriage between your U.S. citizen stepparent and your K3 nonimmigrant parent must have occurred before your 18th birthday. [27] The formula for calculating CSPA age is as follows: Age at time of visa availability - Pending time = CSPA Age, While an applicant must file an adjustment application or otherwise seek lawful permanent resident status in order to benefit from CSPA, the date the applicant files an adjustment application is not relevant for the CSPA age calculation.[28]. A lock ( A locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. If your LPR parent filed a Form I-130 for you as his or her child and then your parent became a U.S. citizen before you turned 21, your age freezes on the date your parent became a citizen. Officers may use the USCIS webpage to track movement of dates over time but should confirm consequential dates in the relevant monthly bulletin and chart. Looking for U.S. government information and services? If you were under the age of 21 at the time your parent filed Form I-589, your age is frozen as of that date and you will not age out. An applicant is listed as a derivative on an approved Form I-140 filed by their parents employer. NVC will send another invoice for both of your child once the visa date/priority date confirmed that they are qualified for CSPA. [19], CSPA applies differently to family-sponsored and employment-based preference and DV adjustment applicants than it does to refugee, asylee, and IR adjustment applicants. See9 FAM 502.6-4, Diversity Visa Processing. That is accomplished by filing certain documents within one year of visa availability. However, if the qualifying underlying form was approved prior to the effective date, an applicant who applies for adjustment of status after the effective date may still qualify for CSPA coverage. The DV Program registration period began on October 1, 2012, and the DV Selection Letter is dated May 1, 2013. Unmarried Son or Daughter of LPR (F2B) Becomes Unmarried Son or Daughter of U.S. Citizen (F1). CSPA may also still apply to a preference applicant whose immigrant petition was approved prior to August 6, 2002, and who did not have an adjustment application pending on August 6, 2002, but who subsequently applied for adjustment and was denied solely for aging out. The derivative child does not have an available visa based on the Final Action Dates chart in December 2020, and cannot apply during that month. Congress recognized that many children were aging out due to large USCIS processing backlogs, so it enacted the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) to protect certain children from aging out. L. 107-56 (PDF), 115 Stat. The applicants mother filed a petition on the applicants behalf on February 1, 2016. See Part L, Refugee Adjustment, Chapter 2, Eligibility Requirements, Section F, Special Considerations for Refugee Adjustment of Status Applicants, Subsection 2, Child Status Protection Act Provisions [7 USCIS-PM L.2(F)(2)]. The historical versions are provided for research and reference purposes only. If the applicants CSPA age is over 21 at the time of subsequent visa availability, the applicant is no longer eligible for CSPA coverage. Officers should review the USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin webpage to determine whether the applicant had a prior 1-year period of visa availability to file for adjustment of status. See Section G, Sought to Acquire Requirement [7 USCIS-PM A.7(G)]. For DV applicants, the number of days the petition was pending is the period of time between the first day of the DV application period for the program year in which the principal applicant qualified and the date on which notifications that entrants have been selected become available. 7 USCIS-PM A.7 - Chapter 7 - Child Status Protection Act. To be CSPA qualified you must meet two criteria: Your "CSPA age" must be under 21 years old. It appears that NVC generally does not issue fee bills to dependent children who have . Applicants who will follow to join the principal applicant later will be interviewed separately. Commonplace circumstances, such as financial difficulty, minor medical conditions, and circumstances within the applicants control (such as when to seek counsel or begin preparing the application package), are not considered extraordinary. In September 2015, DOS and USCIS announced a revision to the Visa Bulletin, which created two charts of dates. 5 There are exceptions to this rule for VAWA self -petitioners, and qualifying self petitioning widow(er)s of U.S. citizens. Noncitizens must generally file motions to reopen within 30 days of the decision. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), to include how USCIS calculates age under certain contexts and what actions satisfy the sought to acquire requirement. In order to benefit from CSPA as a family preference (including VAWA self-petition), employment-based preference, or DV applicant, you must seek to acquire lawful permanent resident status within 1 year of when a visa becoming available to you for filing an adjustment of status application. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) was enacted in order to keep immigrant families intact despite family-based and employment-based waiting times which can be long. If a VAWA self-petitioner was the beneficiary of a previously filed Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130), the VAWA self-petitioner and the VAWA self-petitioners derivatives CSPA age is calculated using the date the Form I-360 was filed because this is the petition through which they are seeking adjustment of status. Since the prospective applicant only had 4 months of time in which to seek to acquire during the initial period of availability, the prospective applicant has a full 1-year period beginning October 1, 2021, in which the prospective applicant may seek to acquire. The date a Form I-590 is considered filed is the date of the principal refugee parents interview with a USCIS officer. To benefit from the CSPA age determination, applicant must seek to acquire lawful permanent residence within 1 year of the visa becoming available. This page was not helpful because the content: Chapter 9 - Death of Petitioner or Principal Beneficiary, Chapter 10 - Legal Analysis and Use of Discretion, Part I - Adjustment Based on Violence Against Women Act, Part J - Trafficking Victim-Based Adjustment, Part Q - Rescission of Lawful Permanent Residence, Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin, Age-Out Protections Afforded Battered Children Pursuant to The Child Status Protection Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, How to Use the USCIS Policy Manual Website, Appendix: 2020 Fee Rule Litigation Summary. Instead, CSPA provides methods for calculating an applicants age for immigrant visa purposes. NVC is asking us to pay IV Application Processing Fees on ceac.state.gov but it only displays names of my husband and I on ceac.state.gov. You are 21 years and 4 months old when USCIS considers an immigrant visa available to you. First, the date in the DOS Visa Bulletin for the prospective applicants country of chargeability and preference category may retrogress or move backwards. INA 201(f) - Rules for determining whether certain aliens are immediate relatives, INA 203(h) - Rules for determining whether certain aliens are children, INA 207(c)(2)(B) - Admission by Attorney General of refugees; criteria; admission status of spouse or child; applicability of other statutory requirements; termination of refugee status of alien, spouse, or child, INA 208(b)(3)(B) - Continued classification of certain aliens as children, INA 209(a)(1) - Inspection and examination by Department of Homeland Security, INA 209, 8 CFR 209 - Adjustment of status of refugees and asylees, Pub. The priority date should not be used for purposes of determining CSPA eligibility. Only the applicants who are listed on the interview appointment letter issued by the NVC must appear to be interviewed at the scheduled time. [^ 33] For more information, see Chapter 3, Filing Instructions, Section B, Definition of Properly Filed, Subsection 4, Visa Availability Requirement [7 USCIS-PM A.3(B)(4)] and Chapter 6, Adjudicative Review, Section C, Verify Visa Availability [7 USCIS-PM A.6(C)]. 6 USCIS-PM G.1 - Chapter 1 - Purpose and Background, 6 USCIS-PM G.2 - Chapter 2 - Eligibility Requirements, 7 USCIS-PM A.3 - Chapter 3 - Filing Instructions, 7 USCIS-PM A.6 - Chapter 6 - Adjudicative Review, 7 USCIS-PM B.2 - Chapter 2 - Eligibility Requirements, 7 USCIS-PM B.8 - Chapter 8 - Inapplicability of Bars to Adjustment. You should not have your exam until your interview has been scheduled. A previously filed Form I-824 that was denied because the principal applicant's adjustment application had not yet been approved may serve as evidence of having sought to acquire. See 9 FAM 502.1-1(D)(6), Sought to Acquire LPR Status Provision, for more information regarding how overseas applicants may satisfy the sought to acquire requirement in the consular processing context.