Visas and the queue

Child Status Protection Act

Also called CSPA, CSPA age.

The Child Status Protection Act is the 2002 statute that can keep a derivative child of an EB-5 investor a child by subtracting the days the parent's petition was pending from the child's age on the date a visa became available, so only adjudication time comes off and the wait in the visa queue does not.

What it decides

Pending time is the approval date minus the filing date and nothing else comes off, so for a backlogged country almost the whole delay still counts against the child, while a quickly approved Form I-526E subtracts only the few months it sat with USCIS. Visa availability is the later of the petition approval date and the first day of the month of the Visa Bulletin showing that priority date current. The child must also remain unmarried, since the Act does not change the definition of a child, and must have sought to acquire permanent residence within one year of visa availability, absent extraordinary circumstances. For adjustment applications filed on or after 15 August 2025 USCIS reads availability from the Final Action Dates chart, reversing guidance issued on 14 February 2023 that had used whichever chart USCIS designated for filing, so a child whose family filed on Dates for Filing can be over 21 by the time the visa itself becomes available. A separate 2022 rule at 8 U.S.C. 1153(h)(5) protects a child of an investor whose conditional residence was terminated.

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(h)(1) for the formula, 1153(h)(2)(B) for the petition that counts in the derivative case, and 1153(h)(5) for the separate rule on children of investors; Public Law 107-208, 6 August 2002; 7 USCIS-PM A.7, current as of 5 August 2026, at section F for the calculation and the age at time of visa availability and section G for the sought to acquire requirement, together with its appendix Update on Visa Availability and Child Status Protection Act Age Calculation, issued 8 August 2025 and effective 15 August 2025.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into child status protection act rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Derivative beneficiaryA derivative beneficiary is the spouse or unmarried child under 21 of an EB-5 investor who, under 8 U.S.C. 1153(d), takes the same classification, the same order of consideration and the same priority date as the investor without filing a petition of their own.
Age determination for children of investors8 U.S.C. 1153(h)(5) keeps a derivative child of an EB-5 investor a child after turning 21: if the child's conditional permanent residence is terminated, the principal investor may file one further EB-5 petition within a year of the termination and the child still counts, provided the child is unmarried.
Final Action DateA final action date, shown in the Department of State Visa Bulletin as an Application Final Action Date, is the cut-off at which an immigrant visa may actually be issued or an adjustment of status approved for a given preference category and country of chargeability.
Dates for FilingDates for Filing is the more permissive of the two cutoff charts in each monthly Visa Bulletin, and its date is normally later than the matching Final Action Dates cutoff, so it opens paperwork earlier in the queue than a visa number is actually ready. For Form I-485 it applies only in the months and categories USCIS designates; the State Department uses it separately to decide when the National Visa Center asks a consular applicant for documents.
Adjustment of statusAdjustment of status is the process under 8 U.S.C. 1255 by which someone already in the United States becomes a permanent resident without leaving, on Form I-485, instead of collecting an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad. An EB-5 investor who adjusts is granted conditional permanent residence for two years, the same status a consular applicant receives on admission.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary