Li v. Renaud

by Mark Fleming

Li v. Renaud (2nd Cir., June 30, 2011)
POOLER, Winter, Parker

Summary:  “Plaintiffs-Appellants appeal the judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York (Marrero, J.), dismissing their complaint for failure to state a claim. Plaintiffs- Appellants argue that the Child Status Protection Act, and in particular 8 U.S.C. § 1153(h)(3), entitles Duo Cen, an alien who aged out of eligibility for an immigrant visa as a derivative beneficiary to his grandfather’s 1994 petition, to retain the 1994 priority date for his mother’s 2008 family-sponsored petition for Duo Cen. We disagree. Section 1153(h)(3) does not entitle an alien to retain the priority date of an aged-out family preference petition if the aged-out family preference petition cannot be “converted to [an] appropriate category.” Because Plaintiffs-Appellants have specified no “appropriate category” to which Duo Cen’s grandfather’s petition could be converted, Section 1153(h)(3) does not entitle him to retain the 1994 priority date from his grandfather’s petition.”

Read the opinion here.