Child Status Protection Act (CSPA).note¶
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Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
Versión en español
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) defines a child as a person who is both unmarried and
under 21 years old. 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. 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.
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. The
CSPA went into effect on August 6, 2002.
CSPA does not change the definition of a child. Instead, CSPA provides a method for calculating a
person’s age to see if they meet the definition of a child for immigration purposes. The calculated age
is the child’s “CSPA age.” This allows some people to remain classified as children beyond their 21st
birthday. However, CSPA does not change the requirement that you must be unmarried in order to
remain eligible for classification as a child.
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CSPA Applicability and Eligibility
CSPA applies only to the following people:
Immediate relatives;
Family-sponsored preference principal applicants and derivative applicants;
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petitioners and derivative applicants;
Employment-based preference derivative applicants;
Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) derivative applicants;
Derivative refugees; and
Derivative asylees.
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 August 6,
2002:
Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative;
Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant;
Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker;
Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal;
Form I-590, Registration for Classification as a Refugee; or
Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition.
CSPA for Refugees and Asylees
CSPA for Immediate Relatives
If you are an immediate relative, a VAWA self-petitioning abused spouse or child of a U.S. citizen, or
a derivative child of a VAWA self-petitioning abused spouse or child of a U.S. citizen, your age is
frozen on the date the Form I-130 or Form I-360 is filed. 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. However, you must remain
unmarried in order to qualify.
CSPA for Family and Employment Preference and Diversity Visa Immigrants
If you are a family preference (including VAWA), employment-based preference, or DV applicant,
your CSPA age is calculated 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). However, you must remain unmarried in order to qualify.
The formula for calculating CSPA age is as follows:
Age at Time of Visa Availability - Pending Time = CSPA Age
Example:
You are 21 years and 4 months old when an immigrant visa becomes available to you. Your petition
was pending for 6 months. Your CSPA age is calculated as follows:
21 years and 4 months - 6 months = 20 years and 10 months
Age at Time of Visa Availability
The date the visa is considered available is the later of these two dates:
The date the petition was approved; or
The first day of the month of the Department of State Visa Bulletin that indicates that a visa is
available for you in the Final Action Dates chart.
For DVs, the date a visa is considered available for CSPA purposes is the first day on which the
Department of State can allocate a visa number based on the principal applicant’s rank number.
Pending Time
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. The formula determining the length of time the
petition was pending is as follows:
Approval Date - Filing Date = Pending Time
Example:
Your mother filed a petition for you on February 1, 2016. USCIS approved the petition on August 1,
2016.
August 1, 2016 - February 1, 2016 = 6 months
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 to the date of the DV selection letter.
Example:
The DV Program registration period began on October 1, 2012, and the DV Selection Letter is dated
May 1, 2013.
May 1, 2013 - October 1, 2012 = 7 months
Sought to Acquire Requirement
In order to benefit from CSPA as a family preference (including VAWA), employment-based
preference, or DV applicant, you must seek to acquire lawful permanent resident status within 1 year
of a visa becoming available to you. This is referred to as the “sought to acquire” requirement.
You may satisfy this requirement by:
Properly filing a Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status; or
Submitting a completed Part 1 of Form DS-260, Immigrant Visa Electronic Application; or
Having a Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition properly filed on
your behalf.
If you fail to satisfy the sought to acquire requirement, USCIS may use its discretion to excuse you
from this requirement if you can establish that your failure to do so was the result of extraordinary
circumstances.