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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Supreme Court to Hone Visa ‘Age-Out’ Procedures

(CN) - The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether children who "age out" of their eligibility for family visas due to processing delays should be placed near the front of the line for adult visas.

The justices on Monday said it will hear arguments in Mayorkas v. De Osorio, which seeks clarification on the "age out" section of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The law allows U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents to obtain visas for their children and spouses to immigrate to the United States.

When children turn 21 before their visas are processed -- and thus lose their "child" status -- they can still qualify as a child according to a formula that subtracts the number of days their application was pending from their age when the visas became available. Visa petitions for children who have "aged out," even under this formula, are automatically converted to the adult category.

The high court must decide whether those adult applications for aged-out children should be fast-tracked, meaning they're given priority based on the date of their parents' petition.

The 9th Circuit ruled that they should, as outlined in the Child Status Protection Act.

"Congress's decision to allow aged-out beneficiaries to retain their priority dates when they join new preference category lines will necessarily impact the wait time for other aliens in the same line," Judge Mary Marguia wrote for the 9th Circuit majority. "It is difficult to assess the equities of this result, but that is not our role."

Dissenting Judge Milan Smith Jr. said the law "is ambiguous," and he would defer to the Board of Immigration Appeals' interpretation.

The high court is expected to take up the case in the fall term.

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