CSPA (Child Status Protection Act): How Age Is Calculated, When It Is Frozen, and Why Chart B Is Not Used

01

What CSPA Does

CSPA took effect on 2002-08-06. It does not change the definition that a child must be unmarried and under 21; instead, it provides a method for calculating “CSPA age,” allowing some people to continue to be treated as children after turning 21. It applies to immediate relatives, principal beneficiaries and derivatives in family preference categories, VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives, employment-based and DV derivatives, and derivative refugees and asylees.

02

Immediate Relatives: Age Is Frozen on the Filing Date

For immediate relatives (as well as VAWA spouses and children of U.S. citizens and their derivative children), age is frozen on the date Form I-130 or I-360 is filed. Those under 21 at filing will not “age out,” but must remain unmarried.

03

Preference Categories: Age When a Visa Becomes Available Minus Pending Time

CSPA age = age when a visa becomes available − the number of days the petition was pending. The visa availability date is the later of the petition approval date and the first day of the month in which the Visa Bulletin’s Final Action Dates show a visa as available. Pending time is the number of days from filing to approval.

The Policy Manual explains: Even if USCIS designates Dates for Filing as the chart that may be used to file Form I-485 that month, Final Action Dates are still used to calculate CSPA age. For those who file under Chart B, age is not immediately locked in at filing; if their age as subsequently calculated under Chart A is 21 or older, they may no longer qualify as children. Adjustment applications filed before 2025-08-15 are subject to the previous guidance issued on 2023-02-14 (based on the chart USCIS authorized for that month).

04

“Sought to Acquire” Within One Year

Preference-category, employment-based, and DV applicants must seek to acquire status within one year after a visa becomes available, for example by filing Form I-485, submitting Part I of Form DS-260, or paying the immigrant visa fee. For those who do not meet this requirement, USCIS may, in its discretion, deem it satisfied if they can demonstrate that the failure was due to extraordinary circumstances.

05

Petitioner Naturalization and Category Conversion

If the parent of an F2A child naturalizes while the child is under 21, the child’s age is frozen on the naturalization date and the child becomes an immediate relative. When F2B converts to F1, the beneficiary may elect in writing not to convert. For conversion rules, see the article “How Categories Change When Family Circumstances Change.” Nationality and visa “chargeability” are not the same concept; the latter determines which country’s visa queue applies.