17 Nov I-485 Applications Transferred from Approved I-140 Petition to Approved I-130 Petition and CSPA Utilized for Derivative Children who had turned 21
Getson & Schatz P.C successfully represented a client submitting an I-485 Application to Adjust Status for himself and three derivative beneficiaries. Our attorneys also helped the client in transferring the I-485 Petition from an approved 1-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker to an approved I-130 Petition for Alien Relative with a current priority date, allowing his I-485 Petition to be processed quicker. Our attorneys’ also were able to get the I-485 applications transferred from the Texas field office to the Newark, New Jersey field office.
The client’s I-485 was initially filed based upon an EB-3 1-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker; however the priority date for the I-140 Petition was not current. An I-130 Petition for Alien Worker was approved after the initial I-140 was approved, which listed the client’s wife and two children as the derivative beneficiaries. The priority date for this I-130 was current; therefore our attorneys at Getson & Schatz requested the initial I-485 to be transferred from the not current I-140, to the now current I-130, to allow for faster processing.
Pursuant to the April 30, 2008 Neufeld Memo, “Revised Guidance for the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)” if an I-130 beneficiary’s CSPA age is under 21, he or she will retain classification as a child by filing Form I-485 within one year of the visa availability date. CSPA age is calculated by subtracting the number of days a petition was pending from a beneficiary’s age at the time an immigrant visa number became available. The Memo further states that if a visa availability date regresses before a beneficiary files Form I-485, the CSPA age is calculated using the date the visa number becomes available again, and the beneficiary whose CSPA is under 21 retains classification as a child by filing within one year of the subsequent visa availability date.
The I-130 application filed on behalf of the client’s two derivative beneficiary children was pending for over 8 years prior to its approval.
An immigrant visa number first became available a year later but since the children did not seek to transfer their pending I-485 application to the approved I-130 before the visa availability date regressed they are deemed to have not filed the I-485 Applications prior to regression. Their visa number became available two years after the I-130 was initially approved when the children where 24 and 21 respectively. Our Philadelphia attorneys were able to show that therefore their CSPA ages were 16 and 13 years old, therefore meaning they retained their classification as children by filing the instant request to transfer their pending I-485 applications within one year of their new visa availability date.
Based on this information our attorneys successfully transferred the I-485 to the more current I-130, allowing for faster processing and enabling the client and his three derivative beneficiaries to remain in the United States as Lawful Permanent Residents.