February 13, 2003

More on the Child Status Protection Act

In January 2003, the State Department issued a cable which revises some of its interpretations of the application of the age-out protections found in a previous cable (dated September 2002) regarding the operation of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). The new cable reiterates and clarifies the main points of the CSPA; limits the mandatory advisory opinion requirement to a narrow class of cases; and announces revisions to certain important aspects of the preliminary guidance. The new cable is very complex; we have attached it in PDF for review and reference. The new cable goes further than the previous instructions to posts in terms of its beneficial interpretations of the confusing CSPA.

Among its instructions, the new cable provides clarification that the submission of DS-230, Part I or, where the principal applicant adjusted status in the U.S, the submission of form I-824, will suffice to satisfy the CSPA requirement that a child to apply for permanent residence within one year after a visa number becomes available.

DOS also now interprets CSPA to allow applicants to opt-out of eligibility for immediate relative status in situations where retaining their F1 (unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) preference status would allow them to immigrate together with their children, who would be able to apply to immigrate as derivative beneficiaries.

  DOS: Revised Cable on Child Status Protection Act (PDF/108 kb, 10 pages)