Family Petition: Adoption & Cspa Training Course Packet

Hague Convention, CSPA, Preference System

What you'll learn

The CSPA is vital for families with children in the immigration process because it helps protect children from aging out of eligibility for immigrant visas.

The CSPA freezes or adjusts the child's age under specific circumstances, ensuring that they don't lose eligibility due to long processing times.

Adoption can also provide a pathway for foreign-born children to immigrate to the U.S. under certain conditions

By staying informed about these mechanisms, families can make better decisions about petitions and protecting the rights of children during lengthy visa process

Requirements

You will learn everything you need to know

Description

The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) plays a crucial role in U.S. immigration by protecting children who might "age out" while waiting for their immigration applications to be processed. In most family-based immigration categories, a child is defined as an unmarried person under the age of 21. However, due to the long processing times in some immigration categories, children may turn 21 before their visa is issued, disqualifying them from immigrating under the "child" category. The CSPA helps mitigate this issue by freezing the child’s age at a certain point in the immigration process, often at the time when the petition is filed, rather than when the visa is issued. This protection prevents children from losing their eligibility due to bureaucratic delays, allowing families to stay together during the immigration process. The CSPA applies not only to family-based petitions but also to employment-based, diversity lottery, and other categories where long waiting periods can jeopardize the immigration status of dependents.The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption is another important framework in U.S. immigration law, particularly for families seeking to adopt internationally. The convention sets international standards to safeguard the interests of children, birth parents, and adoptive parents in the adoption process. The U.S. is a signatory to the Hague Convention, meaning that any international adoption involving U.S. parents must comply with the convention's regulations. These standards aim to prevent the abduction, sale, or trafficking of children, ensuring ethical adoption practices. For U.S. citizens adopting from a Hague Convention country, the adopted child may qualify for an immigrant visa once the adoption is finalized, either through the IR-3 or IR-4 visa categories, depending on whether the adoption was completed abroad or in the U.S. Understanding the relationship between CSPA and the Hague Convention is critical for families pursuing adoption, as the child’s immigration status may be protected under CSPA while awaiting the completion of the adoption process.The U.S. family-based immigration preference system is designed to prioritize close family relationships while managing the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year. Under U.S. law, family-based immigration is divided into two main categories: immediate relatives and family preference categories. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, such as spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents, are not subject to numerical limits on visas, allowing them to immigrate more quickly. However, other family members fall under the family preference categories, which are subject to annual visa caps.The family preference system is divided into several tiers based on the closeness of the relationship between the petitioner (the U.S. citizen or permanent resident) and the beneficiary (the family member abroad). The categories include F1 (unmarried adult children of U.S. citizens), F2A (spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents), F2B (unmarried adult children of lawful permanent residents), F3 (married children of U.S. citizens), and F4 (siblings of U.S. citizens). Each category has its own priority date and visa cap, which means that the waiting times can vary significantly depending on the category and the applicant’s country of origin. For example, applicants from countries with high demand for visas, such as Mexico or the Philippines, may face longer waiting times compared to other applicants. Understanding the preference system helps families plan their immigration petitions more effectively, allowing them to track visa bulletin updates and predict when their priority dates will become current, enabling their family members to proceed with the immigration process.

Overview

Section 1: Priority and Waiting Time - Visa Bulletin

Lecture 1 What exactly is the visa priority chart?

Lecture 2 New visa priority charts

Lecture 3 Don't wait a quarter of a century for a Green Card

Lecture 4 How can I save 15 years of waiting for my Green Card?

Lecture 5 Oh no! My visa retrogressed.

Lecture 6 The Visa Bulletin and how it works

Lecture 7 The Immigration Preference System Explained

Lecture 8 Visa Processing Times

Lecture 9 Family Visa Bulletin Chart

Lecture 10 Visa Bulletin

Lecture 11 Visa Processing

Lecture 12 Taking a long time does not mean the system is 'broke'.

Lecture 13 The Visa Bulletin

Lecture 14 Family-based Preference System

Section 2: Adoption

Lecture 15 Want to adopt? Find out how through the Hague Convention

Lecture 16 Want to Adopt a child?

Lecture 17 How to do an Orphan Petition?

Lecture 18 Adoption Petitions

Lecture 19 Hague Convention required from India to adopt. The SIJS petitions.

Lecture 20 Adopting a child

Lecture 21 Hague Convention and the Special Immigrant Juvenile Petition

Lecture 22 Adopting an orphan to petition to the US

Lecture 23 Adopting from a Hague country versus a non-country

Section 3: Child Status Protection Act

Lecture 24 CSPA Introduction

Lecture 25 CSPA Immediate Relative Lock in Dates Examples

Lecture 26 Locking in your age under the CSPA Immediate Relative

Lecture 27 CSPA and what 'Sought to Acquire' means

Lecture 28 CSPA Examples of Calculating Age

Lecture 29 CSPA and what is meant by 'Availability' of a Visa Number

Lecture 30 CSPA and what is meant by 'Pending'

Lecture 31 CSPA and how to calculate your age

Lecture 32 CSPA Divorced child

Lecture 33 CSPA Automatic Conversion

Lecture 34 CSPA Retroactivity Examples

Lecture 35 CSPA Retroactivity

Lecture 36 CSPA - Do I still qualify?

Lecture 37 CSPA requires an analysis to see if you are under 21.

Immigrants / Law Students / USC Family