Can my children obtain a green card?
Applicants for green cards may include their unmarried children under the age of 21 on their green card applications. To decrease the risk of children “aging out” (i.e., turning 21 before approval of the green card), the U.S. government created the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) which locks in the child’s age in what is known as the “CSPA age”.
To qualify for CSPA:
Your child must be unmarried; and
The I-140 must be filed before your child turns 21.
If the above qualifications are met, then the CSPA age is calculated by applying this formula:
Age at time of visa availability - Pending time of I-140 = CSPA Age
Let’s apply this formula to an example.
Let’s say you have a child who is 20 years and 2 months old when your I-140 was filed.
Your priority date did not become current under the “Dates for Filing” chart in the Visa Bulletin until 12 months after I-140 filing. This means that your child’s “age at time of visa availability” is 21 years and 2 months old. (20 years and 2 months + 12 months = 21 years and 2 months)
Let’s also say that it took 5 months from I-140 filing to I-140 approval, meaning “pending time of I-140" is 5 months.
Now apply the CSPA formula:
21 years and 2 months – 5 months = CSPA age of 20 years and 9 months.
This means that, in this example, your child has not aged out and would be eligible to apply for a green card.
NOTE: Because the Visa Bulletin is updated every month, if your LC has not been filed or is still pending, BDV cannot yet predict whether your child will age out before your priority date is current. Please let BDV know if you have an unmarried child who is 18 years or older. We will flag it for your assigned attorney to do a CSPA analysis once your LC is approved to see whether your child would be eligible for green card filing under CSPA.