# America's CHILDREN Act of 2023: Plain Language Summary

This bill creates a new pathway for certain young adults to become permanent residents (green card holders) if they came to the United States as children with parents who were working here on temporary visas. Specifically, it targets people who spent at least eight years as dependent children of parents on employment-based work visas, have lived in the U.S. for at least ten years total, and have graduated from a U.S. college or university. These individuals could apply directly for permanent resident status without needing their parents to sponsor them or waiting in line behind other immigration applicants.

The bill also includes important protections for children of temporary visa holders who are stuck in immigration limbo. Currently, when children age out (turn 21), they can lose their eligibility to immigrate even if their parents' cases are still pending. This bill freezes their age at the time their parent's immigration petition was filed, giving them more time to complete the immigration process without aging out. Additionally, it allows these adult children to keep their place in the immigration line—their "priority date"—even if they have to file new petitions, so they don't lose years of waiting time.

The practical effect is that young adults who grew up in America, attended U.S. schools, and graduated from U.S. colleges would have a clearer legal status and path to staying permanently. They could work without restrictions and wouldn't face the uncertainty of potentially being deported after spending most of their lives here. The bill also provides a second chance for people whose immigration cases were previously denied—they can ask immigration authorities to reconsider those cases under these new rules within two years of the law taking effect.

America’s CHILDREN Act of 2023

Ross, Deborah K.

America's CHILDREN Act of 2023 or the Protecting Children of Long-Term Visa Holders Act of 2023 This bill provides lawful permanent resident status to certain college graduates who entered the United States as children and addresses other immigration-related issues. Specifically, this bill allows a non-U.S. national (alien under federal law) to apply for lawful permanent resident status if the individual (1) was lawfully present in the United States as a dependent child of an individual admitted for employment, (2) was in the United States with such status for at least eight years, (3) has graduated from an institution of higher education in the United States, and (4) is not deportable or otherwise inadmissible. In addition, the individual must have been lawfully present in the United States for at least 10 years at the time of the application. The bill also modifies various provisions related to calculating an individual's age for immigration purposes and the priority date of certain immigration-related applications. For example, to determine whether an individual is a dependent child for certain immigration petitions,&nbsp;the individual's age at the time a petition is filed shall be the age used for that determination. (Currently, this determination for some petitions is based on the individual's age at the time a visa becomes available, so it is possible for an individual to be a dependent child when filing a petition but become too old to qualify by the time the visa is available.)