The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced an update to its Policy Manual regarding the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), which reverts back to its pre-February 14, 2023 policy.
As background, for immigration purposes, a “child” is an unmarried individual who is under 21 years old. A person who is older than 21 years is ineligible to gain lawful permanent resident status (“green card”) as a child, also known as “aging out.” By meeting certain requirements, an individual may use the provisions contained in CSPA to “freeze” their age and prevent aging out. First, the individual’s “CSPA age” must be below 21 years at the time of visa availability. To calculate an individual’s CSPA age, take the child’s actual age on the date that a visa becomes available (the first day of the first month that the green card is eligible for filing). From this figure, subtract the number of days that the immigrant visa petition (for example, the Form I-526, Form I-140, or Form I-130) was pending with USCIS. The result is the CSPA age.[1] If the age is below 21 years old, the individual has satisfied the initial step for classification as a child for green card purposes.
The other critical requirement is that the child must “seek to acquire” the desired status within one year of visa availability.[2] Immigrant visa availability is determined based on the priority date of the immigrant visa as reflected in the Visa Bulletin that is published monthly by the U.S. Department of State.[3] If the immigrant visa is not yet approved, the individual’s CSPA age will be based on the later date.[4]
.
Through its February 14, 2023 policy, USCIS broadened its definition of “visa availability” in order to expand the pool of children who might not otherwise be able to immigrate as a dependent of their parent’s petition. Specifically, in the February 14, 2023 policy, USCIS considered a visa available for purposes of CSPA age calculations at the same time USCIS considers a visa available for accepting and processing the adjustment of status application (the “Dates for Filing” chart, also referred to as “Chart B”), which was a departure from the sole use of the “Final Action Dates” chart to determine visa availability by the Department of State.
However, with the announcement on August 8, 2025, USCIS is now rescinding its more flexible policy of when the one-year availability deadline might begin. While USCIS’s return to the original CSPA policy promotes consistency with the Department of State’s interpretation of CSPA eligibility requirement of only using the Final Action Dates chart in the Visa Bulletin, it also curtails the ability of aged-out children to attempt to obtain LPR status through their parent’s prior petition filing.
The new guidance applies to adjustment of status applications filed on or after August 15, 2025.
For more information, please see the USCIS press release (https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-updates-policy-on-cspa-age-calculation