By our Reporter
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will change how it determines a child’s eligibility under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) starting August 15, 2025.
The CSPA, enacted in 2002, was designed to prevent children from “aging out” of green card eligibility due to long immigration delays. Under U.S. law, applicants must be under 21 to qualify as a “child,” but visa backlogs can push them past that age before their cases are processed. The CSPA addresses this by “freezing” a child’s age in certain cases, depending on when a visa is considered “available.”
Since February 2023, USCIS and the U.S. Department of State have used different standards for defining visa “availability.” USCIS relied on the more flexible Dates for Filing chart, while the State Department used the stricter Final Action Dates chart. This created uneven results, with children applying from inside the U.S. often having a better chance of keeping eligibility than those applying from abroad—a situation widely criticized by lawyers and families.
From August 15, USCIS will align with the State Department and adopt the stricter Final Action Dates chart for CSPA age calculations. This change ensures a uniform standard for applicants both inside and outside the U.S. However, children who qualified under the old system may now lose eligibility sooner.
USCIS confirmed it will still apply its February 14, 2023, policy for adjustment of status cases pending before that date, meaning some applicants may remain protected under the previous, more lenient rules. In addition, if a child missed the one-year deadline to apply for adjustment of status but can prove extraordinary circumstances, they will still be considered to have met the “sought to acquire” requirement.
The agency says the move promotes fairness, but immigration experts warn it makes timing more critical, especially for parents sponsoring children nearing age 21.
