For the Child Status
Protection Act (CSPA) for family and employment
preference, how to calculate the CSPA age?
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 (Green Card) status as a child but turns 21
before being approved for 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.
U.S. 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.
If you are a family preference, 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
For example: If 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