USCIS Updates Policy Guidance for the “Sought to Acquire” Requirement Under the Child Status Protection Act
/On August 24, 2023, USCIS announced that it has updated its Policy Manual to clarify how the extraordinary circumstances exception will be applied to the “sought to acquire” requirement under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) to reflect the February 14, 2023 policy change.
The CSPA protects certain beneficiaries from losing their eligibility for immigrant visas and adjustment of status because they “age out” by turning 21 years of age during the immigration process and no longer qualify as a child for immigration purposes. To benefit from the CSPA, noncitizens must seek to acquire lawful permanent resident status within 1 year of when an immigrant visa becomes available. On February 14, 2023, USCIS issued policy guidance updating when an immigrant visa becomes available for the purpose of calculating an applicant’s CSPA age.
This change to the USCIS Policy Manual:
Explains that USCIS considers the policy change to reflect an extraordinary circumstance that may excuse an applicant’s failure to meet the sought to acquire requirement;
Clarifies that USCIS may excuse an applicant’s failure to meet the sought to acquire requirement if they did not apply to adjust their status because they could not calculate their CSPA age under the prior policy or their CSPA age would have been calculated as over 21, but they are now eligible for CSPA age-out protection under the new policy; and
Clarifies that USCIS consider applicants to have met the sought to acquire requirement if their application to adjust their status was pending on Feb. 14, 2023 and they applied to adjust their status within 1 year of a visa becoming available based on the Final Action Dates chart under the policy guidance that was in effect when they applied.
Under the policy guidance in effect before February 14, 2023, some noncitizens may not have applied to adjust their status because a visa was not available to calculate CSPA age under the prior policy, or the noncitizen’s CSPA age would have been calculated to be over 21 years old. If these noncitizens apply to adjust their status under the new policy issued on February 14, 2023, they may not be able to meet the 1-year sought to acquire requirement. However, noncitizens who do not meet this requirement may still benefit from the CSPA if they can establish that their failure to meet the requirement was the result of extraordinary circumstances.
