USCIS Updates Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) Age Calculation for Certain Adjustment of Status Applicants

On February 14th, 2023, USCIS issued guidance in the agency’s Policy Manual on when an immigrant visa number is considered “available” for the purpose of calculating an applicant’s age under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA).

Generally, a child who applies for permanent residency based on a parent’s approved immigrant visa petition must be under the age of 21.  A child who “ages out” during the immigration process may lose their eligibility.  Under the CSPA, the amount of time that an immigrant visa petition remains pending may be subtracted from the child’s age to determine whether they have “aged out” at the time their parent’s priority date becomes current. 

Under the previous CSPA guidance, USCIS considered a visa available for purposes of the CSPA age calculation based only on the Final Action Date chart of the Visa Bulletin, even if the applicant could apply for adjustment of status using the earlier date in the “Dates for Filing” chart. Under this new guidance, USCIS will now use the Dates for Filing chart to calculate these noncitizens’ ages for CSPA purposes, which provides these noncitizens with more certainty about their eligibility to adjust status. If these noncitizens are eligible to adjust status because of the change in policy and they have filed for adjustment of status, they will also be eligible to apply for employment and travel authorization based on their pending adjustment of status application, and they generally will not lose previously issued employment or travel authorization.