USCIS Updates Policy Guidance for the “Sought to Acquire” Requirement Under the Child Status Protection Act

We are updating the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify how we will apply the extraordinary circumstances exception to the “sought to acquire” requirement under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) in light of a Feb. 14, 2023, policy change. This update:

The CSPA protects certain beneficiaries from losing their eligibility for immigrant visas and adjustment of status because they age during the immigration process and no longer qualify as a child for immigration purposes. To benefit from the CSPA, noncitizens must seek to acquire lawful permanent resident status within 1 year of when an immigrant visa becomes available. On Feb. 14 USCIS issued policy guidance updating when an immigrant visa becomes available for the purpose of calculating an applicant’s CSPA age.

Under the policy guidance in effect before Feb. 14, 2023, some noncitizens may not have applied to adjust their status because a visa was not available to calculate CSPA age under the prior policy or the noncitizen’s CSPA age would have been calculated to be over 21 years old. If these noncitizens apply to adjust their status under the new policy issued on Feb. 14, they may not be able to meet the 1-year sought to acquire requirement. However, noncitizens who do not meet this requirement may still benefit from the CSPA if they can establish that their failure to meet the requirement was the result of extraordinary circumstances.

Visit the Policy Manual Feedback page to comment on this update. USCIS welcomes feedback on this guidance and will consider any comments received in future updates.