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How can we ensure that our 24-year-old qualifies as dependent in our EB-5 petition?

We are from India and filed I-526 in Nov 2018 when our child was 20.5 years old (6 months from 21st birthday). We got approved in April 2021 and the visa bullletin was current for India. But we never heard back from NVC or USCIS with visa bill or any other details despite multiple emails asking to send them visa bill. Then the RC program lapsed. How can we ensure our child gets the green card as dependent with us? We tried our best to “seek to acquire” but they did not respond to emails or send any document and the program lapsed. Our child turns 24 biologically soon (but was 20.5 years old in November 2018 when we filed). What should we do?

Answers

• Bernard P Wolfsdorf

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on March 21, 2022

  The NVC has not been receptive to requests to issue fee bills but we recommend you send them the DS-260 form with fee regardless, even by FedEx, so you can show you attempted to freeze the age. It appears that one must have a full one year to seek to acquire and if you do not because of retrogression, one should get an extra year to seek to acquire, and then when you do the required action, the child''s age is frozen. I am hopeful you can prove you tried but some people do not realize they need to file with lawyers who know how CSPA works. It seems very few really understand how important it is to know how CSPA works. Many only think the lowest fee is important but having CSPA knowledge is critical.

• Julia Roussinova

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on March 18, 2022

  You should work with your immigration attorney. It would depend on your specific case circumstances and whether you are processing from India or the U.S.

• Daniel B Lundy

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on March 17, 2022

  You need to consult directly with an immigration attorney. There are things we have done to try to meet the "seeks to acquire" requirement, including paying the fee bill (assuming NVC issues it), requesting the fee bill, emailing DOS and USCIS, and filing an I-824. Your particular circumstances will dictate what should be done. In your case, you at least have some evidence that you sought to acquire the visa, but more specific information is needed, which requires an in-depth consultation.

• Lynne Feldman

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on March 17, 2022

  If your child is in the U.S. with you, then you and the child may be able to file I-485s, which will count as "seek to acquire" once the 60 days pass after the new re-authorization bill is in effect.