A spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one may be included as derivative applicants. Age is assessed under the rules governing when a child's age is fixed for these purposes, and a child who has married or passed the age limit needs an independent route.
The twenty-first birthday is the deadline the family should be tracking
Derivative status attaches to the principal, so the family's outcome depends on his petition rather than on their own qualifications. The complication is time. An EB-5 process can run for years between filing and permanent residence, and a child who was seventeen at the outset may be over the limit by the end.
The Child Status Protection Act provides for calculating a child's age in a way that can subtract certain processing time, and whether it assists any particular family depends on the dates and on visa availability for the relevant category and country. That analysis is worth doing at the beginning, because the alternatives for a child who ages out are entirely different routes with their own timetables. Where residence is eventually granted, it is conditional for the derivatives as well as for Amrit, and the conditions are removed for the family through his petition.
- USCIS: EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
- 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5): employment creation immigrants
- eCFR: 8 CFR 204.6, Petitions for employment creation aliens
- USCIS: Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status
- USCIS: Child Status Protection Act
- Department of State: Visa Bulletin