USCIS CSPA Policy Change: What Immigrants With Children Need to Know

On Friday, August 8, 2025, USCIS announced an update to its Policy Manual, which will change how it calculates a dependent child’s age under the Child Status Protection Act (“CSPA”). This change is effective on August 15, 2025, so it is important for prospective immigrants to understand this change. Here is what you need to know:

1.     What is CSPA?

Generally speaking, if a principal immigrant is a parent and the parent is granted an immigrant benefit, their children also receive derivative benefits. This applies as long as the child is unmarried and under 21 years of age when they receive lawful permanent resident status.

In the early 2000s, USCIS processing times increased so much that elder children were increasingly at risk of “aging out” of derivative benefits. In 2002, Congress passed CSPA to protect children from aging out by changing how it calculated a child’s age for immigration purposes. This calculation takes the child’s age at the time a visa became available to them and subtracts the amount of time their petition was pending. That becomes the child’s “CSPA Age.”

2.     How does CSPA protect children from aging out?

Under CSPA, if an immigrant petition is approved after a child turns 21, the child can retain their derivative status as long as they “sought to acquire” lawful permanent resident status within one year of an immigrant visa becoming available to them.

For immigrants inside the United States in lawful status:

1. If the application is sponsored by an immediate relative or based on a refugee, asylum, VAWA, or Form I-360 widow(er) application, the “sought to acquire” requirement does not apply as the CSPA age is considered “frozen” on the date the principal applicant files their application.

2. If the application is family-sponsored, employment-based, or under the Diversity Visa Program, their children can seek to acquire permanent resident status by filing Form I-485.

If the “availability” requirement applies, what matters most is the timing. USCIS is changing the way it calculates that timeline, starting with Form I-485 applications filed on or after August 15, 2025.

 3.     How did USCIS calculate visa availability before?

In 2015, the Department of State (“DOS”) started publishing two different charts in the Visa Bulletin, a “Dates for Filing” chart and a “Final Action Dates” chart. Each month, USCIS would designate one of the two charts for use. Adjustment of status applicants would use that chart to see if they could file their Forms I-485 with USCIS that month. In May 2018, USCIS said that it would only consider a visa available for CSPA Age calculation purposes if a visa was immediately available based on the Final Action Dates Chart. This meant that if USCIS was using the “Dates for Filing” chart in a given month, the same applicant could have a visa immediately available for the purpose of filing their Form I-485, but not immediately available for CSPA. This forced applicants to file and pay for adjustment of status applications with no way of knowing whether their children would be protected from aging out.

On February 14, 2023, USCIS acknowledged this issue and announced that if an immigrant visa was immediately available for the purpose of filing a Form I-485, a visa was also immediately available for calculating a child’s CSPA age. Under this policy, USCIS calculated a child’s CSPA age based on the later of the following dates:

1. The date of the petition approval (if a visa was immediately available); OR

2. The first day of the month when USCIS considers a visa available for the applicant’s immigrant visa category, priority date, and country of chargeability based on the chart USCIS was using.

4.     How will USCIS calculate visa availability going forward?

This depends on when you file your Form I-485.

If you filed Form I-485 before August 15, 2025, USCIS calculates a child’s CSPA age based on the above formula stemming from the February 2023 policy.

If you file Form I-485 after August 15, 2025, the February 14, 2023 policy applies, so USCIS calculates a child’s CSPA age based on the later of the following dates:

1. The date of the petition approval (if a visa is immediately available); OR

2. The first day of the month when USCIS considers a visa available for your immigrant visa category, priority date, and country of chargeability based on the Final Action Dates chart.

5.     What do prospective immigrants need to do?

1. Confirm whether CSPA applies to your application type. See USCIS Policy Manual, under “Summary of Child Status Protection Act Applicability.”

2. If you are considering filing an immigrant petition and adjustment of status application, note your child(ren)’s ages for your attorney.

3. If your children are older, or if you face retrogression, ask your attorney whether they need to consider other immigration options or strategies to avoid aging out.

4. If you are concerned that your child may have missed or is at risk of missing the “sought to acquire” window, contact your attorney. USCIS’ new policy has some exceptions under extraordinary circumstances.

Please note that this blog post is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. For specific concerns or questions, we encourage you to seek legal counsel.