That is accomplished by filing certain documents within one year of visa availability. 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. [34] DOS publishes a new Visa Bulletin on a monthly basis. 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. Based on the CSPA rule, she should be still qualified for F2A. However, a transfer of underlying basis request can also result in potential derivative beneficiaries become eligible to adjust status as a derivative because their calculated CSPA age based on the petition is under 21 years of age. 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. Only the applicants who are listed on the interview appointment letter issued by the NVC must appear to be interviewed at the scheduled time. 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. Unmarried Son or Daughter of LPR (F2B) Becomes Unmarried Son or Daughter of U.S. Citizen (F1). In order to qualify as a stepchild, the marriage between your U.S. citizen stepparent and your K1 nonimmigrant parent must have occurred before your 18th birthday. 3 USCIS-PM - Volume 3 - Humanitarian Protection and Parole, 4 USCIS-PM - Volume 4 - Refugees and Asylees. This technical update replaces all instances of the term alien with noncitizen or other appropriate terms throughout the Policy Manual where possible, 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]. Legal Authorities and Additional Guidance, CSPA age is frozen on the date the principal refugee parents Form I-590 is filed (the date of the parents interview with USCIS). 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. NVC will send another invoice for both of your child once the visa date/priority date confirmed that they are qualified for CSPA. For derivative asylees, an adjustment applicants CSPA age is his or her age on the date the principal applicants Form I-589 is filed. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. You must check the. You will need the ten (10) digit barcode number from your DS-260 confirmation page to book your appointments. 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. 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. Quote Tweet #9 01-15-2003, 12:35 AM Hello Everybody, Regarding "Child Status protection act" (CSPA) On "Retention of priorty of date" in F4- F3 categories. 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. In order to include his or her child(ren) on the self-petition as derivatives, the child(ren) must be under the age of 21 and unmarried when the Form I-360 is filed, regardless of whether the child(ren) had a separate or approved Form I-130 when the Form I-360 was filed.[14]. In order to warrant a favorable exercise of discretion, the circumstances must truly be extraordinary and beyond the adjustment applicants control. A lock ( A locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. A preference applicant whose visa became available on or after August 7, 2001 who did not seek to acquire within 1 year of such visa availability but who would have qualified for CSPA coverage had he or she applied, but for prior policy guidance concerning the CSPA effective date, may still apply for adjustment of status. On June 1, 2021, the visa becomes available again to the prospective applicant. The visa remains available to the prospective applicant through March 2021, that is, for a continuous 1-year period of visa availability. Diversity immigrant visa (DV) derivatives; CSPA provisions vary based on the immigrant category of the applicant. The petition had been pending for three months before it was approved, so that period of time can be subtracted from the child's age. 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 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. August 1, 2016 - February 1, 2016 = 6 months (or 182 days). If you want to opt out of the automatic conversion, you must submit a written request to the USCIS office that approved your Form I-130. You may check the Visa Bulletinto see if opting out of automatic conversion may result in a shorter waiting time for you. As that process is ongoing, USCIS has moved any remaining AFM content to its corresponding USCIS Policy Manual Part, in PDF format, until relevant AFM content has been properly incorporated into the USCIS Policy Manual. 1 USCIS-PM B - Part B - Submission of Benefit Requests, 7 USCIS-PM A - Part A - Adjustment of Status Policies and Procedures, 7 USCIS-PM F - Part F - Special Immigrant-Based (EB-4) Adjustment, 7 USCIS-PM M - Part M - Asylee Adjustment, 11 USCIS-PM A - Part A - Secure Identity Documents Policies and Procedures. For information regarding implementation, see Appendix: 2020 Fee Rule Litigation Summary. 5 There are exceptions to this rule for VAWA self -petitioners, and qualifying self petitioning widow(er)s of U.S. citizens. In other words, the applicants age is frozen on the date the Form I-589 is filed. See9 FAM 502.6-4, Diversity Visa Processing. 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. The formula for determining the length of time the petition was pending is as follows: Approval Date - Filing Date = Pending Time. 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. You should not have your exam until your interview has been scheduled. An applicant is listed as a derivative on an approved Form I-140 filed by their parents employer. [^ 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. [^ 13] A child of a widow(er) who is ineligible to be included as a derivative may be eligible for consideration under INA 204(l) or humanitarian reinstatement under 8 CFR 205.1(a)(3)(i)(C)(2). If the prospective applicant has a priority date in their country of chargeability and preference category that is later than the Final Action Date, then a visa is no longer available to them for accepting and processing their application during the given month. [^ 46] If a derivative child has a pending adjustment application and USCIS approves the principal applicants request to transfer the underlying basis of their adjustment application to a different immigrant category based on another approved petition, then the date that the transfer request is received by USCIS is the date used to determine whether the derivative child met the sought to acquire requirement. When considering a claim of extraordinary circumstances, the officer should weigh the totality of the circumstances and the connection between the circumstances presented and the failure to meet the sought to acquire requirement within the 1-year period, as well as the reasonableness of the delay. [^ 24] See Section B, Child Status Protection Act Applicability [7 USCIS-PM A.7(B)] for more information on effective date. [^ 22] See INA 203(h)(1)(A). Ineffective assistance of counsel, when certain requirements are met. 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. L. 107-56 (PDF), 115 Stat. [^ 39] See INA 203(h)(1)(A). 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). Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) Alert: On Feb. 14, 2023, USCIS issued 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 for noncitizens seeking lawful permanent resident status in a preference category. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The applicants CSPA age is calculated using the approved petition that forms the new basis of the adjustment of status application.[29]. The approval notice will also show you which office approved your Form I-130. A visa initially becomes available to the prospective applicant according to the Dates for Filing chart on October 1, 2020, which USCIS has designated for use in that month. See AFM 21.2(e) (PDF, 1.82 MB), The Child Status Protection Act of 2002. 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.