On Sept. 25, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated its Policy Manual to clarify the calculation of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) age for noncitizens seeking CSPA protection under the “extraordinary circumstances” exception. By way of background, CSPA protects dependent children from “aging out” and becoming ineligible for permanent residence as derivative beneficiaries under certain circumstances. Please review our coverage of USCIS CSPA policy updates

While CSPA protection is generally determined based on the date an immigrant visa becomes available, requiring dependent children to seek to acquire it within one year of that date, the “extraordinary circumstance” policy provides exceptions to that requirement under limited circumstances. Specifically, where such circumstances were not created by the applicant but directly affected their ability to seek to acquire permanent residence within one year of visa availability, and these facts are reasonable, USCIS has said it would excuse dependents from the “seek to acquire” requirement.  USCIS has now provided further clarity regarding the “seeking to acquire” component of CSPA calculation under extraordinary circumstances.

Key updates:

  • Seeking to Acquire: For applicants excused from the “sought to acquire” requirement due to extraordinary circumstances, the CSPA age would be calculated from the date the immigrant visa first became available, provided the visa remained available for a continuous one (1) -year period without any intervening visa unavailability.
  • Intervening Visa Unavailability: If the immigrant visa became available and subsequently unavailable, the CSPA calculation could rely on the date an immigrant visa first became available if they can demonstrate extraordinary circumstances prevented them from seeking to acquire their immigrant visa before it became unavailable. 

USCIS has issued this new guidance to ensure consistent adjudication for all Applications to Adjust Status relying on extraordinary circumstances to secure CSPA protection. This updated guidance applies to all applications pending on or after Sept. 25, 2024, and supersedes any prior related instructions.

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Photo of Nataliya Rymer Nataliya Rymer

Nataliya Rymer focuses her practice on employment-based immigration and compliance. She represents clients in a wide range of employment-based immigrant and non-immigrant matters, including professionals, managers and executives, artists and entertainers, treaty traders and investors, immigrant investors, and persons of extraordinary ability.

Nataliya…

Nataliya Rymer focuses her practice on employment-based immigration and compliance. She represents clients in a wide range of employment-based immigrant and non-immigrant matters, including professionals, managers and executives, artists and entertainers, treaty traders and investors, immigrant investors, and persons of extraordinary ability.

Nataliya also has experience working with employers on I-9 employment verification matters as well as H-1B and LCA compliance-related issues. She counsels employers on due diligence issues, including internal audits and reviews, as well as minimization of exposure and liabilities in government investigations.

In addition, Nataliya is experienced with family-based immigration and immigration-related federal court litigation issues, as well as waivers of inadmissibility.

Photo of Natalie Gorelishvili Natalie Gorelishvili

Natalie Gorelishvili focuses her practice on U.S. business immigration and compliance matters. She represents clients across a variety of industries in a wide range of employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant visa matters, including PERM Labor Certification applications, EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, H-1B, J-1, E-2, E-3…

Natalie Gorelishvili focuses her practice on U.S. business immigration and compliance matters. She represents clients across a variety of industries in a wide range of employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant visa matters, including PERM Labor Certification applications, EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, H-1B, J-1, E-2, E-3, L-1, O-1 and TN. Natalie has experience providing clients and their employees with creative legal solutions on complex immigration matters and responding to complex Requests for Evidence.