In 2006, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued an unpublished decision, Matter of Garcia, in which the BIA stated that if a child aged out (turned 21) while waiting for the priority date on his parent’s petition to become current, then, in certain circumstances, the parent’s petition would automatically convert to the appropriate category, and the child would be able to retain his or her parent’s original priority date.

In the Garcia case, the child was a derivative beneficiary of her parent’s F-4 petition (sister/brother).  Because it took so many years for that F-4 petition to become current, the child eventually aged out, and was no longer included under the parent’s petition.  However, the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), enacted in 2002, contained a provision that if the age of a child is calculated to be over 21 years of age, "The alien’s petition shall automatically be converted to the appropriate category and the alien shall retain the original priority date issued upon receipt of the original petition."  In other words, the F-4 petition would automatically convert into an F-2B petition (single adult child of immigrant parent), and the child would be able to retain their parent’s original F-4 priority date.  Thus, in the Garcia case, a "32-year old child" was able to obtain a green card, without having to wait several additional years for the priority date in the F-2B category to become current, because she used her parent’s old F-4 priority date.