BIA Says Individual Is Child Who Filed for Adjustment After CSPA Effective Date
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) sustained the appeal and remanded the case of a person whose visa petition was approved before the August 6, 2002, effective date of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) but who filed an adjustment of status application after that date. The BIA said the respondent retained his status as a child, and therefore was an immediate relative, because he was under the age of 21 when the visa petition was filed on his behalf.
Among other things, the BIA found no indication that Congress intended to exclude from coverage of the CSPA those whose visa petitions were approved before its effective date but who waited until after that date to file an adjustment application. The BIA noted that the CSPA was created to remedy the problem of minor children of U.S. citizens losing their immediate relative status and being “demoted” to the family first preference category as a result of the backlog in adjudicating visa petitions and applications for adjustment of status.
The full text of the case is posted here.
