CSPA Age Calculator: Will Your Child Age Out of a Family or Employment Petition?

Under the Child Status Protection Act, a child in a family or employment preference case still counts as a child if their age on the day a visa becomes available, minus the number of days the petition was pending at USCIS, is under 21. USCIS takes the visa-availability date as the later of the petition approval date and the first day of the month in which the Visa Bulletin's Final Action Dates chart shows the priority date as current. The child must also stay unmarried and must seek permanent residence within one year of that date.

Rules read: November 2, 2026, from the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 7, Child Status Protection Act (current as of October 27, 2026), and the statute, INA 203(h), 8 U.S.C. 1153(h). When USCIS changes the chapter, this page is re-read and the date changes.

What this does and what it does not. The calculator runs the CSPA age formula on four dates and shows each step, so you can check the arithmetic yourself. It tells you the latest date a visa can become available with the child still under 21, and whether a filing date falls inside the one-year window. It cannot tell you whether a petition was properly filed, whether the child is in a category CSPA covers, or how a retrogression in the Visa Bulletin affects a specific case. It runs in your browser, needs no signup, and nothing you type leaves your device. Esta calculadora también está en español: calculadora de edad CSPA.

Calculate the child's CSPA age

How CSPA age is calculated

The Immigration and Nationality Act defines a child as a person who is unmarried and under 21. CSPA leaves that definition alone. What it changes is how age is measured. The statute, INA 203(h)(1), says the age is "the age of the alien on the date on which an immigrant visa number becomes available," reduced by "the number of days in the period during which the applicable petition... was pending." The Policy Manual writes it as one line:

Age at time of visa availability − Pending time = CSPA age

There are three dates to work out.

Pending time

Pending time is the number of days from the date the petition was properly filed to the date USCIS approved it. The Policy Manual adds that it "includes administrative review, such as motions and appeals, but does not include consular returns." For a child who is a derivative, the petition is the parent's: the I-130 filed for the parent in a family case, or the I-140 in an employment case.

The date the visa becomes available

USCIS says a visa is available for CSPA only when two things are true: the petition is approved, and the Visa Bulletin shows a visa for the category, priority date and country of chargeability. So the date is the later of the approval date and "the first day of the month of the DOS Visa Bulletin that indicates availability... in the Final Action Dates chart."

Which chart counts. The State Department's Visa Bulletin has two charts each month, Dates for Filing and Final Action Dates, and USCIS posts on its adjustment of status filing charts page which one people can use to file. That page controls when you may file. It does not control CSPA age. For adjustment applications filed on or after August 15, 2025, the Policy Manual says USCIS "uses the Final Action Dates chart to determine the alien's age at the time of visa availability." That rule came from policy guidance USCIS issued on August 8, 2025, which replaced a February 14, 2023 policy that had let the Dates for Filing chart count. For applications filed before August 15, 2025, USCIS still applies the 2023 policy. The 2025 guidance says the change keeps USCIS and the State Department on the same chart.

The child's age on that date

Take the child's age on the availability date and subtract the pending days. If the result is under 21, the child can still be treated as a child, provided the other conditions below are met. Said differently, the child is covered as long as the visa becomes available before the 21st birthday plus the number of pending days. That is why a long wait at USCIS can help a child here, while a long wait in the Visa Bulletin does not.

Worked example

The Policy Manual gives two examples that fit together. In the first, a mother files a petition on February 1, 2016, and USCIS approves it on August 1, 2016, which the manual counts as "6 months (or 182 days)." In the second, a child is "21 years and 4 months old when USCIS considers an immigrant visa available," the petition was pending 6 months, and the CSPA age is "20 years and 10 months."

Here are the two combined, for a child born April 1, 1995 whose priority date was already current on the Final Action Dates chart when the petition was approved:

1. Pending time: August 1, 2016 minus February 1, 2016 = 182 days.
2. Visa availability: the later of the approval date (August 1, 2016) and the Final Action Dates month, so August 1, 2016.
3. Age on that date: 21 years and 4 months.
4. CSPA age: 21 years and 4 months minus 182 days = 20 years and 10 months. Under 21.

Entering those dates in the calculator gives the same answer, 20 years, 10 months and 0 days. We ran that test before publishing.

A second example, with made-up dates. A daughter is born June 15, 2005. Her mother, a permanent resident, files an I-130 for her on March 3, 2023, and USCIS approves it on January 10, 2025, after 679 days. The Final Action Dates chart first shows the priority date as current in the September 2026 bulletin. The availability date is September 1, 2026, the later of the two dates, and she is 21 years, 2 months and 17 days old on that day. Subtract 679 days and her CSPA age is 19 years, 4 months and 7 days. She is still a child for this case, and she has to seek permanent residence by August 31, 2027. If the bulletin had not reached her date until after April 23, 2028, she would have aged out.

When CSPA does not protect a child

Marriage. CSPA does not change the requirement that the child be unmarried. A child who marries is no longer a child for these categories, whatever the CSPA age.

Immediate relatives use a different rule. For the child of a U.S. citizen, there is no formula. The Policy Manual says the age "is frozen on the date the Form I-130... is filed." If the child was under 21 that day and stays unmarried, the child does not age out, and the one-year requirement below does not apply. The calculator's immediate relative option checks only that date.

The one-year "sought to acquire" requirement. In preference cases, the formula only helps a child who sought permanent residence within one year of the availability date. The Policy Manual lists what counts: properly filing Form I-485, submitting Part I of Form DS-260 to the State Department, paying the immigrant visa fee, paying the I-864 review fee to the State Department when the child is listed on the affidavit, or a properly filed Form I-824. It also says contacting an attorney "is not equivalent to filing an application" and does not meet the requirement. USCIS can excuse a late filing only for extraordinary circumstances, and it says financial difficulty and minor medical conditions do not qualify.

Filing early does not lock the age. A child can file an I-485 in a month when USCIS allows the Dates for Filing chart, and that filing satisfies the one-year requirement. But the CSPA age is still set when the Final Action Dates chart reaches the priority date. If the child is 21 or older by the formula on that date, the Policy Manual warns the child "may ultimately not be considered a child."

Retrogression. If the Final Action Dates chart reaches the date and then moves back before the child files, the age is not locked. It is worked out again when the date is next current. If the child filed while the date was current and the CSPA age was under 21, the age stays locked through the decision, and USCIS holds the case until a visa is available again.

Only the categories in the statute. CSPA covers immediate relatives, family preference principals and derivatives, VAWA self-petitioners and derivatives, employment-based derivatives, diversity visa derivatives, and derivative refugees and asylees. The Policy Manual says it "does not apply to an alien who is in another immigrant category or who is a nonimmigrant," so a dependent visa such as H-4 is not protected by it.

These rules describe adjustment of status with USCIS. For a child processing at a consulate abroad, the Policy Manual says "the same principles generally apply," and the State Department makes the decision.

Methodology and source

On November 2, 2026 we read the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 7 (current as of October 27, 2026), including its update notice for policy alert PA-2025-15 (issued August 8, 2025, effective August 15, 2025), the USCIS alert on that change, and the text of INA 203(h). The calculator counts pending time in calendar days, from the filing date to the approval date. It sets the availability date to the later of the approval date and the first day of the Visa Bulletin month you enter; if you enter a mid-month date, it moves it to the first of that month, as the Policy Manual does. It then subtracts the pending days from the availability date and gives the child's age on the resulting date in years, months and days, which is the same as subtracting the days from the age. A child is under 21 if that date falls before the 21st birthday. For a February 29 birthday the calculator treats February 28 as the birthday in other years, the earlier of the two possible readings. The one-year window ends the day before the first anniversary of the availability date, again the stricter reading. Before publishing, we entered the Policy Manual's example (born April 1, 1995; filed February 1, 2016; approved August 1, 2016) and got 182 days pending and a CSPA age of 20 years and 10 months, matching the manual. The calculator does not handle diversity visa cases, refugee or asylee derivatives, or the effect of retrogression on a specific case.

Every section heading carries a stable anchor id, and so does the calculator's result line (#cspa-age-result).

Sources

• USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 7, Child Status Protection Act, current as of October 27, 2026: Section F (age calculation, pending time, visa availability), Section G (sought to acquire) and Section C (immediate relatives). Read November 2, 2026.
• INA 203(h), 8 U.S.C. 1153(h), Rules for determining whether certain aliens are children.
• USCIS, Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin.
• USCIS alert, USCIS Actualiza Política sobre el Cálculo de Edad bajo CSPA, August 8, 2025 (Spanish).
• U.S. Department of State, Visa Bulletin.

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This page is general information about the CSPA rules USCIS publishes, not legal advice about your case. Whether a child qualifies depends on the facts and documents in the specific case.