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EAST HANTS · EB-5 FIELD GUIDE

Our daughter is nineteen; will she still qualify as a derivative on an East Hants EB-5 petition?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

She qualifies if she is unmarried and under 21 when the petition is filed, and the Child Status Protection Act may preserve her eligibility while the petition is pending and a visa number is unavailable. Her exact dates and the visa bulletin determine it; assume nothing.

Get the birth date, the filing date and the bulletin on one page

A child's age under EB-5 is assessed with the protections of the Child Status Protection Act: the time the petition was pending is subtracted from her age when a visa number becomes available, and she must seek to acquire residence within the required period afterward. That can preserve a nineteen-year-old through a lengthy process, or fail to if the visa bulletin shows retrogression for the applicable category and chargeability. Ask the adviser to calculate her protected age under current bulletin conditions and to identify the date after which the protection would no longer help. Marriage before residence is granted ends derivative eligibility regardless of age. Hypothetical example: an East Hants couple delay filing for a year to finish the business sale on better terms; that year comes directly out of their daughter's margin. The financial decision and the family decision have to be made together, with the dates in front of everyone.

Hypothetical example: an East Hants orchard-irrigation contractor plans to file after a busy season, while her twenty-year-old son is considering marriage. The first review should calculate his protected age using the petition-pendency period and current visa availability, then record the action date needed to preserve eligibility. The petition receipt, approval notice, visa bulletin, and proof of seeking residence are the records that settle the calculation. A family should decide whether a filing delay or life event changes the child's position before treating derivative status as automatic.