The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will implement a stricter standard for determining children’s eligibility for green cards under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) from August 15, 2025.
The CSPA, enacted in 2002, was designed to prevent children from losing eligibility due to lengthy immigration processing times. Under U.S. immigration law, an applicant must be under the age of 21 to qualify as a “child” for green card purposes.
However, visa processing delays often push applicants past the age limit before their cases are adjudicated. The CSPA addresses this by “freezing” a child’s age in certain circumstances, depending on when a visa is considered “available.”
Since February 2023, USCIS and the U.S. Department of State have applied different standards to determine visa availability. USCIS has used the more flexible Dates for Filing chart, while the State Department has relied on the stricter Final Action Dates chart.
This inconsistency allowed applicants filing from within the U.S. to benefit from more favorable timelines compared to those applying from abroad.
From August 15, USCIS will adopt the State Department’s stricter Final Action Dates chart for CSPA age calculations. The agency said the change will ensure a uniform standard for both domestic and overseas applicants.
USCIS confirmed that the February 14, 2023, policy will still apply to adjustment of status cases that were pending before that date, allowing some applicants to remain eligible under the previous rules.
Additionally, children who missed the one-year “sought to acquire” deadline for adjustment of status applications may still qualify if they can demonstrate extraordinary circumstances.
While USCIS says the policy promotes fairness, immigration experts caution that it reduces flexibility and increases the risk of children “aging out” before green card approval.
The new rule places greater emphasis on timing, particularly for parents sponsoring children approaching the age limit.
The change is expected to affect family-sponsored and employment-based immigration cases currently in the visa backlog, making case monitoring and timely application submission more critical for affected families.