I was recently asked a simple question that once again made me think about matryoshkas on my website and how well they relate to family-based immigration. Do children of derivative children-beneficiaries of fourth preference (F4) principal beneficiary (brother or sister of U.S. citizen) qualify to immigrate based on the same underlying petition? Unfortunately, they don’t. Thanks to the CSPA (Child Status Protection Act), their parents may forever remain “children”, while these children will have to wait for their parents to sponsor them after the parents immigrate and become lawful permanent residents. Kind of like the last matryoshkas, children of principal beneficiaries of F4 petitions can’t take their own children with them…