At I-485 adjustment of status

In January 1999, the INS issued a memo to allow Regional Service Centers and District Offices, for a period of 6 months, beginning from January 19, 1999, to adjudicate adjustment application (I-485) for children about to age out, while G-325 are responses pending, as long as the FBI fingerprinting and background checks have been completed. Directors of Service Centers and District Offices have discretion to determine who should receive expedited adjudication. This process vastly improves the hold on all I-485 processing.

Under 245(i)

If an immigration petition for a child was filed before April 30, 2001, and the child was in the U.S. on December 21, 2000, the child is under the cover of 245(i). In this case, even the child later "age out" by turning 21 years of age, he will still be entitled to the benefits of 245(i). That is, since the child is considered to be "grandfathered" for purposes of adjusting under 245(i), he must still enjoy the immigration benefits even if he ages out. For example, a child of an I-140 or I-130 principal beneficiary who turns 21 before the principal beneficiary is allowed to adjust to lawful permanent residency. The child would have otherwise been able to adjust with the principal beneficiary but for the fact that such child turned 21. Under the 245(i), the child will also be allowed to adjust under a different petition later because the child, as a dependent of the principal, was "grandfathered" by the initial pre-April 30 petition.

Under the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 (VAWA)

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed in 1994 to combat domestic violence in the United States. One provision of VAWA allows immigrant women and children who are abused by their permanent resident or U.S. citizen spouse/parent to apply for relief from deportation in certain situations. However, the amendment of immigration law in 1996 narrowed the forms of relief available against deportation. The legislature passed and the President signed The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA) in 2000, which improves protections for immigrant spouses and their children contained in VAWA. Under the VAWA and VTVPA, children no longer "age out" when they reach 21 years of age if they filed a self-petition or if they could have obtained benefits under their parent's petition.