L. 107-56 (PDF), 115 Stat. In order for family-sponsored and employment-based preference and DV adjustment applicants to benefit from the CSPA age calculation, they must seek to acquire lawful permanent residence within 1 year of when a visa becomes available for accepting and processing a potential adjustment of status application. [^ 17] The date a Form I-590 is considered filed is the date of the principal refugee parents interview with a USCIS officer. 7 USCIS-PM B - Part B - 245(a) Adjustment, 7 USCIS-PM L - Part L - Refugee Adjustment. If you are a K-4 nonimmigrant, you are eligible for CSPA because you will apply for a Green Card as an immediate relative based on a Form I-130 filed by your U.S. citizen stepparent. Pending time includes administrative review, such as motions and appeals, but does not include consular returns. If you do not know which USCIS office approved your Form I-130, you may call our USCIS Contact Center. For historical versions before June 11, 2021, navigate to the USCIS Policy Manual within the USCIS website at:https://archive.org, Select a date to view the historical version, An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, An official website of the United States government, Part R - Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Residence, POLICY ALERT - Age Calculation under Child Status Protection Act, POLICY ALERT - EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, Technical Update - Adding References to the EB-5 Visa Program in Child Status Protection Act Guidance, Technical Update - Replacing the Term Alien, POLICY ALERT - Age and Sought to Acquire Requirement under Child Status Protection Act, POLICY ALERT - Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements Final Rule, Technical Update - Moving the Adjudicators Field Manual Content into the USCIS Policy Manual, Technical Update - Replacing the Term Foreign National, Technical Update - Child Status Protection Act, POLICY ALERT - Child Status Protection Act, POLICY ALERT - Adjustment of Status Policies and Procedures and 245(a) Adjustment, To protect your privacy, please do not include any personal information in your feedback. However, if your stepparent and your K-1 nonimmigrant parent did not marry within 90 days (a requirement for getting a Green Card based on K-1 and K-2 nonimmigrant status), your stepparent might choose to file a Form I-130 for you. This technical update replaces all instances of the term foreign national with alien throughout the Policy Manual as used to refer to a person who meets the definition provided in INA 101(a)(3) [any person not a citizen or national of the United States]. 272, 362 (October 26, 2001). A written request to transfer the underlying basis of the adjustment of status application also will meet the sought to acquire requirement, if we receive the request within 1 year of an immigrant visa becoming available in the new preference category. In most cases, you do not need a Form I-130 to get a Green Card if you are a K-2 nonimmigrant. [^ 42] Submitting a Form DS-260 that covers only the principal applicant does not meet the sought to acquire requirement for a derivative child. Limited CSPA Coverage for K-2 Nonimmigrants. In order to establish extraordinary circumstances, the applicant must demonstrate that: The circumstances were not created by the applicant through his or her own action or inaction; The circumstances directly affected the applicants failure to seek to acquire within the 1-year period; and. 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. 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. Calculate your CSPA age as follows: 21 years and 4 months - 6 months = 20 years and 10 months. If the adjustment applicant was under the age of 21 at the time the petition was filed or automatically converted, the applicant is eligible for CSPA and will not age out. 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. 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. 3 USCIS-PM - Volume 3 - Humanitarian Protection and Parole, 4 USCIS-PM - Volume 4 - Refugees and Asylees. It helps lock in the age and preserve the "child" status of both immediate relatives and those in the preference categories. The prospective applicant decides not to file for adjustment of status between March 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to incorporate changes resulting from the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. (recent experience with CSPA). Unfortunately, the CSPA requires that if a child is eligible, the child must "seek to acquire" a visa within one year. Further, the CSPA provisions pertaining to preference immigrants, including petitions by LPR parents, the are most complex part of this law (in comparison, the CSPA's application to children of U.S. citizens is much more [^ 44] See 9 FAM 502.1-1(D)(6)(a)(3), Sought to Acquire LPR Status Provision. CSPA applies to both noncitizens abroad who are applying for an immigrant visa through the Department of State (DOS) and noncitizens physically present in the United States who are applying for adjustment of status through USCIS. 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). The month . CSPA does not change the definition of a child. For derivative asylees, an adjustment applicants CSPA age is his or her age on the date the principal applicants Form I-589 is filed. CSPA (Child Status Protection Act) Calculator. A lock ( A locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. [^ 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. So my recent CEAC electronic submission story with new information about NVC and CPSA follows: 1) The USCIS approved petition was for a F2A (or F22 - unmarried child under 21 years) 2) NVC CEAC created the case with a F22 visa classification shown on the status page. The applicant must have had a qualifying Registration for Classification as a Refugee (Form I-590) or Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition (. U.S. This may be beneficial because . When the visa becomes available again, the applicants CSPA age is calculated based on the new visa availability date. 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. The CSPA age is calculated based on the new visa availability date of October 1, 2021 (not October 1, 2020), and locked in as of that date provided that the visa remains available and the applicant seeks to acquire during that 1-year period. The delay was reasonable under the circumstances. [^ 27] For CSPA purposes, the age at time of visa availability is the applicants age when USCIS considers the applicants visa available. Sample of CSPA aged appeal letter to NVC (The Child Status Protection Act) Emily Huynh 413 subscribers Subscribe 45 Share 2.5K views 2 years ago This video shows you how to write a letter. In these circumstances, you are not eligible for and do not need CSPA in order to get a Green Card. On June 1, 2021, the visa becomes available again to the prospective applicant. Officers consider new evidence of extraordinary circumstances submitted with the motion to reopen, consistent with the guidance in this section. [21] Furthermore, the applicants eligibility depends not only on the CSPA age calculation but also on whether the applicant sought to acquire lawful permanent residence within 1 year of visa availability.[22]. The CSPA was enacted to preserve child status for certain beneficiaries who would otherwise "age out" (turn 21 years old before they could be issued a visa) due to administrative delays in visa processing. One year later, in December 2021, a visa once again becomes available to the derivative child based on the Dates for Filing chart, which USCIS has designated for use in that month, and the derivative child files an application for adjustment of status. [16], While the child must have been unmarried in order to qualify for refugee derivative status, he or she does not need to remain unmarried in order to adjust status under INA 209.[18]. 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. For more information on K-4 visas, see the K-3/K-4 Nonimmigrant Visas page. If your LPR parent filed a Form I-130 for you as an unmarried son or daughter (second preference classification) and then your parent became a U.S. citizen, you normally would automatically convert to a first preference classification as the unmarried son or daughter of a U.S. citizen (F1). The applicants calculated CSPA age must be under 21 years old; The applicant must have sought to acquire lawful permanent residence within 1 year of visa availability, absent extraordinary circumstances. For a motion filed more than 30 days after the denial, if the noncitizen demonstrates that the delay was reasonable and was beyond their control, we may, in our discretion, excuse the untimely filing of the motion. For IRs and IR self-petitioners or derivatives under VAWA, a childs age is frozen on the date the Form I-130 or Form I-360 is filed, respectively. [48] From the date of visa availability, family-sponsored and employment-based preference and DV adjustment applicants have 1 year in which to seek to acquire permanent resident status in order to qualify for CSPA coverage. The calculated age is the childs CSPA age. This allows some people to remain classified as children beyond their 21st birthday. An adjustment applicant may satisfy the sought to acquire requirement by any one of the following: Properly filing an Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Form I-485);[41], Submitting a completed Immigrant Visa Electronic Application (Form DS-260), Part I to the DOS;[42], Paying the immigrant visa fee to DOS;[43], Paying the Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA (Form I-864) review fee to DOS (provided the applicant is listed on the Affidavit of Support);[44] or, Having a properly filed Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition (Form I-824) filed on the applicants behalf. An applicant may only establish extraordinary circumstances due to ineffective assistance of counsel (the applicants legal representative or attorney) if he or she completes the following: The applicant must submit an affidavit explaining in detail the agreement that was entered into with counsel regarding the actions to be taken and what information, if any, counsel provided to the applicant regarding such actions; The applicant must demonstrate that he or she has made a good faith effort to inform counsel whose integrity or competence is being questioned of the allegations brought against him or her and that counsel has been given an opportunity to respond; and. 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. Therefore, it is always in the applicants best interest to apply for adjustment of status as soon as possible when a visa first becomes available according to the chart designated by USCIS so as to lock in the applicants CSPA age. Official websites use .gov For more information about CSPA, see the following: An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, An official website of the United States government, To protect your privacy, please do not include any personal information in your feedback. [^ 36] See Chapter 6, Adjudicative Review, Section C, Verify Visa Availability, Subsection 5, Visa Retrogression [7 USCIS-PM A.6(C)(5)]. The date the visa is considered available is the later of these 2 dates: For DVs, the date a visa is considered available for CSPA purposes is the first day on which the DOS can allocate a visa number based on the principal applicants rank number. First, the date in the DOS Visa Bulletin for the prospective applicants country of chargeability and preference category may retrogress or move backwards. Such retrogression can affect either chart in the Visa Bulletin and may result in a visa becoming unavailable to the prospective applicant for accepting and processing their application. The adjustment applicant must have had one of the following pending on or after the CSPAs effective date: a qualifying Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition (, The applicant must have been under the age of 21 and unmarried at the time the principal asylum applicants. (CSPA) you can "opt out" of conversion to the F1 visa category and remain an F2B visa applicant . [^ 29] A transfer request potentially affects the CSPA age calculation for the derivative beneficiaries. For more information about applying for a Green Card as a K-1 or K-2 nonimmigrant, see the Green Card for Fianc(e) of U.S. Citizen page. For more information about K-1 and K-2 nonimmigrant visas, see the Fianc(e) Visas page. Your mother filed a petition for you on Feb.1, 2016. If a continuous 1-year period of visa availability elapsed and the applicant did not seek to acquire during the 1-year period, the applicant cannot benefit from the age-out protections of the CSPA. At that point, USCIS would calculate CSPA age based on the derivatives age on December 1, 2021 (not October 1, 2020). 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. The DV Program registration period began on Oct. 1, 2012, and the DV selection Letter is dated May 1, 2013. Paying the immigrant visa fee to the DOS; For refugee and asylee adjustment of status (Green Card), see, For family and employment preference and Diversity Visa immigrants, see. That is accomplished by filing certain documents within one year of visa availability. If you are a family preference (including VAWA self-petition), employment-based preference, or diversity visa (DV) applicant, calculate your CSPA age by subtracting the number of days your petition was pending (pending time) from your age on the date an immigrant visa becomes available to you (age at time of visa availability). If the applicants CSPA age is over 21 at the time of subsequent visa availability, the applicant is no longer eligible for CSPA coverage. Once a Processing Complete Letter has been issued, NVC "closes" the file and places it in a queue for future use. A visa is continuously available for accepting and processing an application for adjustment of status for a 1-year period if, during each month of that year, the applicant has a priority date that is earlier than the date for their country and category on the chart in the DOS Visa Bulletin designated by USCIS for such month. Instead, the filing date (receipt date) is the appropriate date. As it takes a long time to get Greencard in many categories, many dependent children may age-out while waiting and are no longer be eligible as dependents to get a green card. However, you must remain unmarried in order to qualify. Officers should follow guidance in Age-Out Protections Afforded Battered Children Pursuant to The Child Status Protection Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (PDF, 104.96 KB), issued August 17, 2004. To the extent that a provision in the USCIS Policy Manual conflicts with remaining AFM content or Policy Memoranda, the updated information in the USCIS Policy Manual prevails. Seek or sought to acquire is used as shorthand in this chapter to refer to this requirement. See INA 204(a)(1)(D)(i)(III). 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. Diversity immigrant visa (DV) derivatives; CSPA provisions vary based on the immigrant category of the applicant. An applicant is listed as a derivative on an approved Form I-140 filed by their parents employer. The visa remains available to the prospective applicant through March 2021, that is, for a continuous 1-year period of visa availability. U.S. See Section G, Sought to Acquire Requirement [7 USCIS-PM A.7(G)]. See INA 204(a)(1)(D)(i)(I) and INA 204(a)(1)(D)(i)(III). A lock ( A locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. 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. The applicant already had a continuous 1-year period in which to seek to acquire. For DV derivative applicants, the number of days the petition was pending is the period of time between the start of the DV Program registration period and the date of the DV selection letter. [^ 1] See Pub. The formula for determining the length of time the petition was pending is as follows: Approval Date - Filing Date = Pending Time. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating and incorporating relevant Adjudicators Field Manual (AFM) content into the USCIS Policy Manual. Noncitizens must generally file motions to reopen within 30 days of the decision. Motions to Reopen Following Matter of O. Vazquez. A visa initially becomes available to the prospective applicant according to the Final Action Dates chart on March 1, 2020, which USCIS designated for use in that month. The applicants age is frozen on the date of the refugee parents interview. The length of time a petition was pending (pending time) is the number of days between the date that it is properly filed (filing date) and the approval date. If you think, you are eligible under CSPA then you must write letters to NVC, Consulate and INS claiming your eligibility to speed up processing on your file. [^ 23] Qualifying underlying forms include Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130); Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant (Form I-360);Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers (Form I-140); Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor (Form I-526); and Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor (Form I-526E). I suggest you gather up the relevant documents (particularly the I-130 receipt and I-130 approval notice) and get a lawyer to send a letter to the NVC that demonstrates your CSPA calculation, asserts your eligibility to stay in F2A and urges them to forward your case to the consulate for final processing. This situation is commonly referred to as aging out and often means that these applicants would have to file a new petition or application, wait even longer to get a Green Card, or may no longer be eligible for a Green Card. This also applies to circumstances when USCIS approves a request to transfer the underlying basis of a pending adjustment of status application to a different immigrant category based on another approved petition. In order to calculate an adjustment applicants CSPA age according to the formula above, the officer must first determine the age at time of visa availability. Hi, Our case was approved 2 days after the childs 21 birthday. [13], Similarly, the beneficiary of a pending or approved spousal Form I-130 may subsequently file a VAWA-based Form I-360. Instead, CSPA provides methods for calculating an applicants age for immigrant visa purposes. You must submit the correct filing fee for each form unless you are exempt or eligible for a fee waiver. USCIS employees should not rely on the historical versions for current laws, precedent decisions, policies, directives, guidance, and procedures. The applicant must have been under the age of 21 and unmarried at the time the qualifying Form I-590 was filed. U.S. U.S. [^ 47] For more information, see Subsection 3, Extraordinary Circumstances [7 USCIS-PM A.7(G)(3)]. CHILD CITIZENSHIP ACT (CCA) If an American Citizen files an immigration petition for a child that is about to reach the age of 18, NVC sends the case to Post with an EXPEDITED . You will be notified once a decision is reached. This guidance becomes effective October 2, 2020. 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. [^ 7] See Section H, Summary of Child Status Protection Act Applicability [7 USCIS-PM A.7(H)] for a condensed guide to basic provisions for each category of CSPA-eligible immigrants. L. 106-386 (October 28, 2000). If you do not meet the sought to acquire requirement, we may use our discretion to excuse you from this requirement, if you can establish that your failure to meet this requirement was the result of extraordinary circumstances. * Got USCIS receipt notice on April 08, 2011. This content has been superseded by the current version available in the Guidance tab. [20] Instead of freezing the age of the applicant on the filing date, as is the case with IRs, CSPA provides a formula by which the preference applicants CSPA age is calculated in a manner that takes into account the amount of time the qualifying petition was pending. If you were under the age of 21 at the time of your parents interview, your age is frozen as of that date and you will not age out. However, USCIS considers untimely motions to reopen for denials issued after the Matter of O. Vazquez precedent (June 8, 2012), but only if the denial was based solely on the adjustment applicants failure to seek to acquire within 1 year. CSPA CALCULATOR Fill in the fields below for CSPA Calculator * Fields with *are required fields. 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 visa remains available to the prospective applicant for accepting and processing their application according to the Dates for Filing chart (designated by USCIS) for 4 months, that is, through the end of January 2021. DV applicants also use the DOS Visa Bulletin to determine visa availability. L. 107-208 (PDF) (August 6, 2002). [^ 26] In addition to CSPA protections, VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives who turn 21 prior to adjusting status may be eligible for age-out protections provided in the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTPVA) of 2000, Pub. However, we called NVC and was told that she was moved to F2B. Fortunately, her PD is current that month too. See INA 209(a)(1). [^ 45] Applicants may file the Form I-824 concurrently with the adjustment application. . If the petitioner naturalizes (becomes a U.S. citizen) before the child or unmarried son or daughter gets a Green Card, the petition is converted to either an immediate relative or family first preference case. CSPA went into effect on August 6, 2002. The applicants underlying petition was pending for 6 months. Official websites use .gov HOW TO RECAPTURE/RETAIN AND UTILIZE PRIORITY DATES 4 HOW TO RECAPTURE/RETAIN AND UTILIZE PRIORITY DATES | FEBRUARY 2022 The applicant must be unmarried at the time he or she seeks adjustment of status. Does Sought to Acquire Requirement Apply? The core purpose of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)[1] was to alleviate the hardships faced by certain noncitizens who were previously classified as children for immigrant visa purposes, but who, due to the time required to adjudicate petitions, had turned 21 years old and consequently became ineligible to receive such immigrant visas. Since your age freezes on the date your stepparent files the Form I-130, you may benefit from the CSPA as long as your stepparent files the Form I-130 before your 21st birthday. Ineffective assistance of counsel, when certain requirements are met. CSPA applies only to the following people: If you are applying for a Green Card based on one of the categories above, you are eligible for CSPA consideration if either your qualifying Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, or one of the following underlying forms was filed or pending on or after Aug.6, 2002: If you are a derivative refugee, your CSPA age is your age on the date your principal refugee parent or Form I-730 petitioner filed his or her I-590, which is the date of his or her interview with a USCIS officer. If the applicant does not seek to acquire within 1 year of visa availability although the visa was available for a continuous 1-year period, the applicant cannot benefit from the age-out protections of the CSPA. USCIS denied the adjustment application solely because the applicant had aged out. This technical update to Volume 7 includes references to the EB-5 visa program and Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor, and clarifications regarding the Child Status Protection Act eligibility of derivative applicants of the VAWA-based Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant. 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. You should not have your exam until your interview has been scheduled. However, the derivative asylee may overcome this by providing evidence establishing the parent-child relationship, including evidence of the childs age, and a reasonable explanation as to why the derivative was not included on the principals Form I-589. CSPA age is calculated by subtracting the number of days the Form I-130 (or Form I-360 for VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives) was pending from the applicants age on the date an immigrant visa becomes available to the applicant. It is important to note that while USCIS designates one of the charts for use by applicants each month for accepting and processing adjustment of status applications, the Final Action Dates chart always governs when a visa is authorized for issuance to an applicant. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). [^ 39] See INA 203(h)(1)(A). To be CSPA qualified you must meet two criteria: Your "CSPA age" must be under 21 years old. Approval Date If you were under the age of 21 at the time the petition was filed, you are eligible for CSPA and will not age out. You are 21 years and 4 months old when USCIS considers an immigrant visa available to you. If we approve a request to transfer the underlying basis of the pending adjustment of status application, calculate the CSPA age using the approved petition that forms the new basis of the adjustment application. For more information, see Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 7, Part F, Section 2, of the USCIS Policy Manual. 1 USCIS-PM - Volume 1 - General Policies and Procedures, 7 USCIS-PM - Volume 7 - Adjustment of Status, 9 USCIS-PM - Volume 9 - Waivers and Other Forms of Relief, 10 USCIS-PM - Volume 10 - Employment Authorization, 11 USCIS-PM - Volume 11 - Travel and Identity Documents, 12 USCIS-PM - Volume 12 - Citizenship and Naturalization. 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.

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