cspa letter to nvc

Note: If an applicant has multiple approved petitions, calculate the applicants CSPA age using the petition that forms the underlying basis for the adjustment of status application. While K nonimmigrants are not covered under CSPA, K-2 and K-4 nonimmigrants may benefit from CSPA under certain limited circumstances. U.S. CSPA applies to both noncitizens abroad who are applying for an immigrant visa through the Department of State (DOS) and noncitizens physically present in the United States who are applying for adjustment of status through USCIS. Since the prospective applicant only had 4 months of time in which to seek to acquire during the initial period of availability, the prospective applicant has a full 1-year period beginning October 1, 2021, in which the prospective applicant may seek to acquire. In order for a family-sponsored or employment-based preference or DV applicant to qualify for CSPA, the applicant must meet the following requirements: For family-sponsored (including VAWA)[26] and employment-based preference and DV categories, an adjustment applicants CSPA age is calculated by subtracting the number of days the petition on which the applicant seeks to adjust status was pending (pending time) from the applicants age on the date the immigrant visa becomes available to the applicant (age at time of visa availability). (recent experience with CSPA). Therefore, the date the visa is considered available for family and employment-based preference applicants is the later of these two dates: The first day of the month of when USCIS considers a visa available for accepting and processing an adjustment of status application for that immigrant preference category and priority date. 7 USCIS-PM B - Part B - 245(a) Adjustment, 7 USCIS-PM L - Part L - Refugee Adjustment. How can I request NVC to consider my son's CSPA age and grant him immigrant visa as well? August 1, 2016 - February 1, 2016 = 6 months (or 182 days). The applicants CSPA age is calculated using the approved petition that forms the new basis of the adjustment of status application.[29]. If you are a derivative asylee, your CSPA age is your age on the date your principal asylee parent or Form I-730 petitioner filed his or her Form I-589. The date of visa availability is the date of petition approval or the first day of the month of the DOS Visa Bulletin that indicates availability for that immigrant preference category and priority date according to the chart USCIS designated that month for accepting and processing the adjustment of status application, whichever is later. For DV applicants, the number of days the petition was pending is the period of time between the first day of the DV application period for the program year in which the principal applicant qualified and the date on which notifications that entrants have been selected become available. The applicants CSPA age is calculated as follows: 21 years and 4 months - 6 months = 20 years and 10 months. Step 2: Creating A User Account and Scheduling Your Visa Appointment Go to www.ustraveldocs.com/pk/ and create a user account. Denials that were based on the failure to seek to acquire and issued prior to the decision in Matter of O. Vazquez[51] were proper based on the law in effect at the time of the decision. This content has been superseded by the current version available in the Guidance tab. 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. As it takes a long time to get Greencard in many categories, many dependent children may age-out while waiting and are no longer be eligible as dependents to get a green card. Fortunately, her PD is current that month too. In order to qualify as a stepchild, the marriage between your U.S. citizen stepparent and your K1 nonimmigrant parent must have occurred before your 18th birthday. In order to include his or her child(ren) on the self-petition as derivatives, the child(ren) must be under the age of 21 and unmarried when the Form I-360 is filed, regardless of whether the child(ren) had a separate or approved Form I-130 when the Form I-360 was filed.[14]. The applicant must have had a qualifying petition. [^ 26] In addition to CSPA protections, VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives who turn 21 prior to adjusting status may be eligible for age-out protections provided in the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTPVA) of 2000, Pub. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. If you have a pending adjustment application as a derivative child, and we grant the principal applicants request to transfer the underlying basis of their adjustment application to a different immigrant category based on another approvedpetition, then the date we receive the transfer request is the date we use to determine whether you meet the sought to acquire requirement. [^ 36] See Chapter 6, Adjudicative Review, Section C, Verify Visa Availability, Subsection 5, Visa Retrogression [7 USCIS-PM A.6(C)(5)]. On that date, the child was 21 years and five months. See Part L, Refugee Adjustment, Chapter 2, Eligibility Requirements, Section F, Special Considerations for Refugee Adjustment of Status Applicants, Subsection 2, Child Status Protection Act Provisions [7 USCIS-PM L.2(F)(2)]. [2], Section 101(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) defines a child as a person who is unmarried and under 21 years old. Sample of CSPA aged appeal letter to NVC (The Child Status Protection Act) Emily Huynh 413 subscribers Subscribe 45 Share 2.5K views 2 years ago This video shows you how to write a letter. [^ 41] See Chapter 3, Filing Instructions, Section B, Definition of Properly Filed [7 USCIS-PM A.3(B)]. [45], USCIS also considers a written request to transfer the underlying basis of the adjustment of status application to satisfy the sought to acquire requirement if the request is received within 1 year of an immigrant visa becoming available in the new preference category. L. 107-208 (PDF) - Child Status Protection Act, G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative, I-140,Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant, I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor, I-589, Application for Asylum or Withholding of Removal, How to Use the USCIS Policy Manual Website (PDF, 2.99 MB). The calculated age is the childs CSPA age. This allows some people to remain classified as children beyond their 21st birthday. [^ 53] For more detailed guidance on CSPA applicability and VAWA, see INA 204(a)(1)(D)(i) and Age-Out Protections Afforded Battered Children Pursuant to The Child Status Protection Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (PDF, 104.96 KB), issued August 17, 2004. An applicant is listed as a derivative on an approved Form I-140 filed by their parents employer. [21] Furthermore, the applicants eligibility depends not only on the CSPA age calculation but also on whether the applicant sought to acquire lawful permanent residence within 1 year of visa availability.[22]. [20] Instead of freezing the age of the applicant on the filing date, as is the case with IRs, CSPA provides a formula by which the preference applicants CSPA age is calculated in a manner that takes into account the amount of time the qualifying petition was pending. [^ 10] See Matter of Avila-Perez (PDF), 24 I&N Dec. 78 (BIA 2007). For DVs, the qualifying petition is the DV Program electronic entry form. The adjustment applicant must have had one of the following pending on or after the CSPAs effective date: a qualifying Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition (, The applicant must have been under the age of 21 and unmarried at the time the principal asylum applicants. [^ 44] See 9 FAM 502.1-1(D)(6)(a)(3), Sought to Acquire LPR Status Provision. Chapter 8 - Inapplicability of Bars to Adjustment, Volume 1 - General Policies and Procedures, Volume 9 - Waivers and Other Forms of Relief, Volume 11 - Travel and Identity Documents, Volume 12 - Citizenship and Naturalization, Part A - Adjustment of Status Policies and Procedures, Part F - Special Immigrant-Based (EB-4) Adjustment, Part A - Secure Identity Documents Policies and Procedures, Volume 3 - Humanitarian Protection and Parole. CSPA applies to both noncitizens abroad who are applying for an immigrant visa through the Department of State (DOS) and noncitizens physically present in the United States who are applying for adjustment of status through USCIS. 3 USCIS-PM - Volume 3 - Humanitarian Protection and Parole, 4 USCIS-PM - Volume 4 - Refugees and Asylees. For more information on K-4 visas, see the K-3/K-4 Nonimmigrant Visas page. This is referred to as the sought to acquire requirement. . The month . [^ 13] A child of a widow(er) who is ineligible to be included as a derivative may be eligible for consideration under INA 204(l) or humanitarian reinstatement under 8 CFR 205.1(a)(3)(i)(C)(2). To the extent that a provision in the USCIS Policy Manual conflicts with remaining AFM content or Policy Memoranda, the updated information in the USCIS Policy Manual prevails. This letter should also include your and your parents names and dates of birth and the receipt number for your Form I-130. The delay was reasonable under the circumstances. For IRs and IR self-petitioners or derivatives under VAWA, a childs age is frozen on the date the Form I-130 or Form I-360 is filed, respectively. Such retrogression can affect either chart in the Visa Bulletin and may result in a visa becoming unavailable to the prospective applicant for accepting and processing their application. [^ 52] This includes Form I-730 beneficiaries. I suggest you gather up the relevant documents (particularly the I-130 receipt and I-130 approval notice) and get a lawyer to send a letter to the NVC that demonstrates your CSPA calculation, asserts your eligibility to stay in F2A and urges them to forward your case to the consulate for final processing. Since your age freezes on the date the Form I-130 is filed, you benefit from the CSPA as long as your stepparent files the Form I-130 before your 21st birthday. 6 USCIS-PM G.1 - Chapter 1 - Purpose and Background, 6 USCIS-PM G.2 - Chapter 2 - Eligibility Requirements, 7 USCIS-PM A.3 - Chapter 3 - Filing Instructions, 7 USCIS-PM A.6 - Chapter 6 - Adjudicative Review, 7 USCIS-PM B.2 - Chapter 2 - Eligibility Requirements, 7 USCIS-PM B.8 - Chapter 8 - Inapplicability of Bars to Adjustment. [^ 11] See Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act), Pub. The applicants underlying petition was pending for 6 months. [13], Similarly, the beneficiary of a pending or approved spousal Form I-130 may subsequently file a VAWA-based Form I-360. For family and employment-based preference adjustment applicants, the length of time a petition was pending (pending time) is the number of days between the date that it is properly filed (filing date)[30] and the approval date. The CSPA was enacted to preserve child status for certain beneficiaries who would otherwise "age out" (turn 21 years old before they could be issued a visa) due to administrative delays in visa processing. U.S. [^ 54] For more detailed guidance on CSPA applicability and VAWA, see INA 204(a)(1)(D)(i) and Age-Out Protections Afforded Battered Children Pursuant to The Child Status Protection Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (PDF, 104.96 KB), issued August 17, 2004. For more information on CSPA age calculation, see Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 7, Part F, Section 2 of the USCIS Policy Manual. [^ 24] See Section B, Child Status Protection Act Applicability [7 USCIS-PM A.7(B)] for more information on effective date. If the prospective applicant has a priority date in their country of chargeability and preference category that is later than the Final Action Date, then a visa is no longer available to them for accepting and processing their application during the given month. Paying the immigrant visa fee to the DOS; For refugee and asylee adjustment of status (Green Card), see, For family and employment preference and Diversity Visa immigrants, see. [^ 33] For more information, see Chapter 3, Filing Instructions, Section B, Definition of Properly Filed, Subsection 4, Visa Availability Requirement [7 USCIS-PM A.3(B)(4)] and Chapter 6, Adjudicative Review, Section C, Verify Visa Availability [7 USCIS-PM A.6(C)]. [^ 19] See Part L, Refugee Adjustment, Chapter 2, Eligibility Requirements, Section F, Special Considerations for Refugee Adjustment of Status Applicants, Subsection 2, Child Status Protection Act Provisions [7 USCIS-PM L.2(F)(2)]. If you do not meet the sought to acquire requirement, we may use our discretion to excuse you from this requirement, if you can establish that your failure to meet this requirement was the result of extraordinary circumstances. Examples of extraordinary circumstances that may warrant a favorable exercise of discretion include, but are not limited to: Serious illness or mental or physical disability of the applicant during the 1-year period; Legal disability, such as instances where the adjustment applicant suffered from a mental impairment, during the 1-year period; Instances where a timely adjustment application was rejected by USCIS as improperly filed and was returned to the applicant for corrections where the deficiency was corrected and the application re-filed within a reasonable period thereafter; Death or serious illness or incapacity of the applicants attorney or legal representative or a member of the applicants immediate family; and. U.S. L. 106-386 (October 28, 2000). As per CSPA calculator, his CSPA age remains under 21 till November 2017. Under Section 424 of the USA PATRIOT Act, if a qualifying form was filed before September 11, 2001, then the applicant is afforded an additional 45 days of eligibility.[11]. This technical update to Volume 7 includes references to the EB-5 visa program and Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor, and clarifications regarding the Child Status Protection Act eligibility of derivative applicants of the VAWA-based Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant. Calculate your CSPA age as follows: 21 years and 4 months - 6 months = 20 years and 10 months. Official websites use .gov For more information about CSPA, see the following: An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, An official website of the United States government, To protect your privacy, please do not include any personal information in your feedback. In order to qualify as a stepchild, the marriage between your U.S. citizen stepparent and your K3 nonimmigrant parent must have occurred before your 18th birthday. It is meant to insure that sons and daughters can immigrate to the US together with their parents. The prospective applicant decides not to apply for adjustment of status between October 1, 2020, and the end of January 2021. USCIS Changes CSPA Age Calculation | Catholic Legal Immigration Network [^ 28] See Section G, Sought to Acquire Requirement [7 USCIS-PM A.7(G)] for detailed information. CSPA applies only to those applicants specified in the statute: Family-sponsored preference principals and derivatives; Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petitioners and derivatives;[4], Employment-based preference derivatives;[5]. [^ 39] See INA 203(h)(1)(A). CSPA went into effect on August 6, 2002. * Got USCIS receipt notice on April 08, 2011. If a visa initially becomes available and then becomes unavailable[38] for accepting and processing an adjustment of status application before the potential adjustment applicant has filed an application, the applicants CSPA age is not locked in. [^ 50] In Matter of O. Vazquez, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) ruled that extraordinary circumstances could warrant the exercise of discretion to excuse an applicant who failed to meet the sought to acquire requirement during the 1-year period. Cspa need help! - Immigration CSPA CALCULATOR Fill in the fields below for CSPA Calculator * Fields with *are required fields. Example: Visa Becomes Unavailable Before Filing. The CSPA went into effect on August 6, 2002. As a K-2 nonimmigrant (child of a K-1 nonimmigrant who is the fianc(e) of a U.S. citizen), you typically get a Green Card based on your admission into the U.S. with a K-2 visa and your K-1 parents marriage to the U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of being admitted to the U.S. As long as you were under 21 when you were admitted to the United States as a K-2 nonimmigrant, you will not age out of eligibility for a Green Card. Read Shimanto's reply, I posted the format there. [33] The date USCIS considers a visa available for accepting and processing an adjustment of status application according to the USCIS website and the Visa Bulletin is also the date USCIS considers a visa available for CSPA purposes if the petition is already approved. [^ 49] Though the CSPA technically requires DV derivatives to seek to acquire within 1 year, this requirement does not generally affect DV derivatives, as they are only eligible to receive a visa through the end of the specific fiscal year in which the principal applicant was selected under INA 203(c). A visa initially becomes available to the prospective applicant according to the Dates for Filing chart on October 1, 2020, which USCIS has designated for use in that month. When a lawful permanent resident (LPR) files a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative for his or her child or unmarried son or daughter, the petition is classified as a family second preference case. For purposes of adjustment of status of a derivative refugee, CSPA protection is not needed because a derivative refugee does not need to remain the child of the principal refugee in order to adjust status under INA 209. U.S. [^ 37] In order to qualify under CSPA, the applicant must also remain unmarried through final adjudication and must have sought to acquire lawful permanent residence within 1 year of visa availability. So, both you and your brother do qualify for CSPA, you need to write a letter to NVC stating that you and your brother may qualify for CSPA status so please review the situation, Once NVC reviews the case, they will send invoice for you and your brother. A lock ( A locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. The historical versions are provided for research and reference purposes only. For derivatives of widow(er)s, a childs age is frozen on the date the Form I-360 is filed or the spousal Form I-130 is automatically converted to a widow(er)s Form I-360 (in other words, the date of the petitioners death). Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to remove references to Biographic Information (Form G-325A). U.S. Does Sought to Acquire Requirement Apply? You may check the Visa Bulletinto see if opting out of automatic conversion may result in a shorter waiting time for you. Limited CSPA Coverage for K-2 Nonimmigrants. INA 201(f) - Rules for determining whether certain aliens are immediate relatives, INA 203(h) - Rules for determining whether certain aliens are children, INA 207(c)(2)(B) - Admission by Attorney General of refugees; criteria; admission status of spouse or child; applicability of other statutory requirements; termination of refugee status of alien, spouse, or child, INA 208(b)(3)(B) - Continued classification of certain aliens as children, INA 209(a)(1) - Inspection and examination by Department of Homeland Security, INA 209, 8 CFR 209 - Adjustment of status of refugees and asylees, Pub. [^ 1] See Pub. This also applies to circumstances when USCIS approves a request to transfer the underlying basis of a pending adjustment of status application to a different immigrant category based on another approved petition. [^ 7] See Section H, Summary of Child Status Protection Act Applicability [7 USCIS-PM A.7(H)] for a condensed guide to basic provisions for each category of CSPA-eligible immigrants. Officers should review the USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin webpage to determine whether the applicant had a prior 1-year period of visa availability to file for adjustment of status. If a VAWA self-petitioner was the beneficiary of a previously filed Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130), the VAWA self-petitioner and the VAWA self-petitioners derivatives CSPA age is calculated using the date the Form I-360 was filed because this is the petition through which they are seeking adjustment of status. [12] The widow(er)s child(ren), if any, must be under the age of 21 and unmarried at the time of the petitioners death to be classified as derivatives on the automatically converted Form I-360, regardless of whether the child(ren) had a separate pending or approved Form I-130 at the time of the petitioners death. CSPA age is frozen on the date the Form I-130 is filed (or the Form I-360 is filed for VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives). For information regarding implementation, see Appendix: 2020 Fee Rule Litigation Summary. 1 USCIS-PM B - Part B - Submission of Benefit Requests, 7 USCIS-PM A - Part A - Adjustment of Status Policies and Procedures, 7 USCIS-PM F - Part F - Special Immigrant-Based (EB-4) Adjustment, 7 USCIS-PM M - Part M - Asylee Adjustment, 11 USCIS-PM A - Part A - Secure Identity Documents Policies and Procedures. First, the date in the DOS Visa Bulletin for the prospective applicants country of chargeability and preference category may retrogress or move backwards. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) was enacted in order to keep immigrant families intact despite family-based and employment-based waiting times which can be long. The historical versions linked below reflect the pertinent policy in effect on that date and dates reflect when updates occurred. [^ 32] The rank number is the number following the two-letter region code and should correspond with cut-off numbers available in the DOS Visa Bulletin. Furthermore, the fact of being or having been a child is common to all applicants seeking protection under the CSPA and does not constitute extraordinary circumstances. DV applicants also use the DOS Visa Bulletin to determine visa availability. In September 2015, DOS and USCIS announced a revision to the Visa Bulletin, which created two charts of dates. [^ 15] See Part M, Asylee Adjustment, Chapter 2, Eligibility Requirements, Section C, Derivative Asylee Continues to be the Spouse or Child of the Principal Asylee [7 USCIS-PM M.2(C)]. Only the applicants who are listed on the interview appointment letter issued by the NVC must appear to be interviewed at the scheduled time. Motions to Reopen Following Matter of O. Vazquez. [9], CSPA does not apply to adjustment applications that were subject to a final determination prior to the effective date. See9 FAM 502.6-4, Diversity Visa Processing. Depending on the facts of the particular case, a derivative beneficiary may become ineligible to adjust status as a derivative as a result of a transfer request because their new calculated CSPA age is no longer under 21 years of age. Official websites use .gov CSPA provides that the age of the child will be frozen in each of the following 3 circumstances: 1) If the US citizen parent submits an I-130 visa petition for a child prior to his or her 21st birthday. If you are a K-4 nonimmigrant, you are eligible for CSPA because you will apply for a Green Card as an immediate relative based on a Form I-130 filed by your U.S. citizen stepparent. Your petition was pending for 6 months. Here are the details: * The child is studying in the U.S. His parents acquired permanent residency in 2011 and applied for an I-130 for him in 2011 when he was approx. When the visa becomes available again, the applicants CSPA age is calculated based on the new visa availability date. If an applicant has multiple approved petitions, the applicants CSPA age is calculated using the petition that forms the underlying basis for the adjustment of status application. This technical update replaces all instances of the term foreign national with alien throughout the Policy Manual as used to refer to a person who meets the definition provided in INA 101(a)(3) [any person not a citizen or national of the United States]. This may be beneficial because . Once a Processing Complete Letter has been issued, NVC "closes" the file and places it in a queue for future use. You can find the receipt number on the receipt and approval notices. 272, 362 (October 26, 2001). [^ 20] See Section C, Immediate Relatives [7 USCIS-PM A.7(C)], Section D, Derivative Asylees [7 USCIS-PM A.7(D)], and Section E, Derivative Refugees [7 USCIS-PM A.7(E)]. The applicants mother filed a petition on the applicants behalf on February 1, 2016. L. 107-208 (PDF) (August 6, 2002). USCIS denied the adjustment application solely because the applicant had aged out. CSPA does not change the requirement that the applicant must be unmarried in order to remain eligible for classification as a child for immigration purposes. [^ 51] In Matter of O. Vazquez, the BIA ruled that extraordinary circumstances could warrant the exercise of discretion to excuse an applicant who failed to meet the sought to acquire requirement during the 1-year period. The applicants calculated CSPA age must be under 21 years old; The applicant must have sought to acquire lawful permanent residence within 1 year of visa availability, absent extraordinary circumstances. [^ 45] Applicants may file the Form I-824 concurrently with the adjustment application. If someone applies for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status as a child but turns 21 before being approved for LPR status (also known as getting a Green Card), that person can no longer be considered a child for immigration purposes. In order to establish extraordinary circumstances, the applicant must demonstrate that: The circumstances were not created by the applicant through his or her own action or inaction; The circumstances directly affected the applicants failure to seek to acquire within the 1-year period; and. A previously filed Form I-824 that was denied because the principal applicant's adjustment application had not yet been approved may serve as evidence of having sought to acquire. See 9 FAM 502.1-1(D)(6), Sought to Acquire LPR Status Provision, for more information regarding how overseas applicants may satisfy the sought to acquire requirement in the consular processing context. Unfortunately, the CSPA requires that if a child is eligible, the child must "seek to acquire" a visa within one year. * Child Status Protection Act Date Of Birth* Priority Date* Approval Date* Date when Petition Became Current * UNDERSTAND THE TERMS Priority Date It is the date when your Petition was filed. The CSPA age associated with the petition does not change after the filing of the adjustment of status application and is frozen through the final adjudication, regardless of when a visa is authorized for issuance based on the Final Action Dates chart.[37]. A written request to transfer the underlying basis of the adjustment of status application also will meet the sought to acquire requirement, if we receive the request within 1 year of an immigrant visa becoming available in the new preference category. However, the derivative refugee may overcome this by providing evidence establishing the parent-child relationship, including evidence of the childs age, and a reasonable explanation as to why the derivative was not included on the principals Form I-590. If you were under the age of 21 at the time of your parents interview, your age is frozen as of that date and you will not age out. You will receive instructions concerning interview preparation in the appointment letter that you will receive from the NVC. A visa subsequently becomes available again on October 1, 2021, based on the Dates for Filing chart, which USCIS has designated for use in that month. The letter format is on this forum. If you do not know which USCIS office approved your Form I-130, you may call our USCIS Contact Center. Pending time includes administrative review, such as motions and appeals, but does not include consular returns. A preference applicant whose visa became available on or after August 7, 2001 who did not seek to acquire within 1 year of such visa availability but who would have qualified for CSPA coverage had he or she applied, but for prior policy guidance concerning the CSPA effective date, may still apply for adjustment of status. CSPA (Child age Calculator) - greencardpetitions.com In order to benefit from CSPA as a family preference (including VAWA self-petition), employment-based preference, or DV applicant, you must seek to acquire lawful permanent resident status within 1 year of when a visa becoming available to you for filing an adjustment of status application. The prospective applicant decides not to file for adjustment of status between March 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021. CSPA (Child Status Protection Act) may allow some of those aged-out children to immigrate, depending upon various factors. NVC accepted CPSA protection before priority date became current