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IMMIGRATION MARCH 20, 2026 | The Indian Eye 39

underlying I-140 petition. The US- employment based third preference stemming from this interpretation under the APA, such as the issue of
CIS has historically recognized that (EB-3) with a priority date of July could result in derivative children visa availability under the CSPA, at
the child’s age freezes when there is 1, 2013 might only freeze the age of being placed into removal proceed- least in the Fourth Circuit. More-
a concurrently filed visa petition and the child on October 1, 2025 even if ings. It bears consideration, howev- over, the Supreme Court in Loper
adjustment of status application. the I-140 petition got approved on er, that USCIS’ interpretation can Bright Enters. v. Raimondo, has
The visa is available at the time January 10, 2022. If the child was 20 potentially be challenged under the made clear that courts must interpret
of the concurrent filing and so it years and six months on October 20, Administrative Procedure Act, argu- statutes independently and need not
made sense to freeze the age of the 2020, the child’s age ought to have ing that the policy change was arbi- defer to an agency’s interpretation,
child consistent with INA 203(h)(1) frozen on that date before it reached trary and capricious because USCIS providing further basis for contesting
(A). 21 years rather than on October 2025 provide no notice or explanation for USCIS’ new policy.
We saw the CSPA being applied when the child would be well past 21 its reinterpretation of the statute.
to concurrent filings during the July years of age. Pursuant to Reyes v. USCIS, a *Kaitlyn Box is a Partner at Cyrus D.
2007 visa bulletin period even though In the current climate, erro- federal court has jurisdiction to hear Mehta & Partners PLLC.
there was retrogression from August neous denials of I-485 applications a statutory interpretation challenge
2007 onwards. Another good exam- ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ple was the April 2012 Visa Bulletin,
when the EB-2 cut-off dates for In- Cyrus D. Mehta, a graduate of Cambridge University and Columbia Law School, is the Managing Partner of Cyrus D. Mehta
dia and China were May 1, 2010. & Partners PLLC in New York City. Mr. Mehta is a member of AILA’s Administrative Litigation Task Force; AILA’s EB-5 Com-
In the very next May 2012 Visa
Bulletin a month later, the EB-2 cut- mittee; former chair of AILA’s Ethics Committee; special counsel on immigration matters to the Departmental Disciplinary
off dates for India and China retro- Committee, Appellate Division, First Department, New York; member of the ABA Commission on Immigration; board member
gressed to August 15, 2007. Still, the of Volunteers for Legal Services and board member of New York Immigration Coalition. Mr. Mehta is the former chair of the
USCIS considered the child’s age Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Council and former chair of the Committee on Immigration and Nationality
frozen even though there was retro-
gression after April 2012. Law of the New York City Bar Association. He is a frequent speaker and writer on various immigration-related issues, including
USCIS’ new interpretation on ethics, and is also an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches a course entitled Immigration and
will have devastating impacts for Work. Mr. Mehta received the AILA 2018 Edith Lowenstein Memorial Award for advancing the practice of immigration law
children whose ages are no longer
protected under the CSPA, and for and the AILA 2011 Michael Maggio Memorial Award for his outstanding efforts in providing pro bono representation in the
their families. Under the new inter- immigration field. He has also received two AILA Presidential Commendations in 2010 and 2016. Mr. Mehta is ranked among
pretation, a concurrently filed I-140 the most highly regarded lawyers in North America by Who’s Who Legal – Corporate Immigration Law 2019 and is also ranked
petition and I-485 application on
October 20, 2020 under the India in Chambers USA and Chambers Global 2019 in immigration law, among other rankings.

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