Investor routes cap a child’s age at 21 in the US and 30 in Antigua

Six investor routes let the main applicant bring children, and each draws the age line in a different place: 21 in the United States and Greece, 22 in Canada, 30 in Antigua and Barbuda and, for a student, in Dominica. Portugal’s statute names no age. Only the United States and Canada state, in the texts read, the date on which a child’s age is counted for the main application.

Six routes, six definitions of a child

Positions are as at 5 November 2026, from the instrument or agency page linked in each row. Spouses are covered in an earlier article.

Canada, Greece, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda each name an adult child with a disability or incapacity. Greece’s limb was added by Law 5275/2026, in force from 6 February 2026. Portugal’s statute covers incapable children without saying that the child must be a minor.

The US definition has no such limb. Section 101(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) defines a child as an unmarried person under 21 for every kind of child it lists, and nothing in sections 203(d) and 203(h), which carry the definition into EB-5, turns on disability. That reading is limited to those provisions.

Dominica’s FAQ reads its range: By “18 to 30 years” it is intended that a child who is 30 can be included in an application, but not a child who has turned 31. The Antigua and Barbuda page gives no such reading of its 0 to 30.

The date on which the age is counted

The US does not freeze a child’s age when the investor files. Under INA 203(h)(1), a derivative child’s age is the age on the date a visa number becomes available for the investor, less the days the investor’s petition was pending, and it counts only if the child sought permanent residence within a year of that date.

The USCIS Policy Manual lists the EB-5 petitions, Forms I-526 and I-526E, as qualifying forms, measures availability by the Final Action Dates chart and keeps the requirement that the child be unmarried. It calls the result the CSPA age, after the Child Status Protection Act. Whether the formula protects a particular child depends on the Final Action Date for the investor’s country of chargeability.

Canada freezes the age early, and the date depends on the route. For a person in the Quebec investor class who holds a Certificat de sélection, the Regulations lock the child’s age on the date the application for selection was made to Quebec; for a provincial nominee, on the date the application for nomination was made to the province; otherwise, on the date the application is made.

IRCC says it uses the age on that date even if the child later passes the limit, but the child must still not be a spouse or common-law partner during processing.

For the other four routes, the texts read state no such date for a child on the main application: Portugal’s articles 98, 99 and 107, Greece’s article 95(2), Dominica’s regulations, read in full, and the Antigua and Barbuda page. Each names a date elsewhere.

Portugal requires a spouse to be at least 18 on the date of the request. Antigua and Barbuda sets a date only for adding the future spouse of a dependent child: the child must be no older than 35 when the application to add the spouse is submitted.

Dominica lets a main applicant who has obtained citizenship apply for a dependant who was one when the original application was made, and asks a student aged 18 to 30 for evidence of existing enrolment.

Portugal’s factsheet gives ages the statute does not

Law 23/2007, consolidated to 10 September 2026, admits dependent minor or incapable children, and unmarried dependent adult children who are studying. For the holder of an ARI, the investment residence authorisation, the adult child need not study in Portugal. Article 99 sets no maximum age, while the Civil Code defines a minor as a person who has not completed 18.

An AIMA factsheet for ARI family reunification gives numbers: children up to 17, or incapable, and adult children over 18 and up to 25 who are unmarried, dependent and studying. The sheet carries no date; its file metadata puts it at 16 February 2024.

That predates Law 61/2025, which amended article 99 in October 2025. The age of 25 is not in the statute text.

The two-year wait before reunification does not apply to an ARI holder’s family or to minor or incapable dependants (article 98(3)). When a child reaches majority, an autonomous residence authorisation may be granted for two years, renewable for three-year periods (article 107(4)); the verb is discretionary.

What happens when the child reaches the limit

In Greece, a child admitted as a common child, or as the sponsor’s or the spouse’s child under 21, who reaches 21 receives an independent permit for 3 years. Article 90(5) of the Migration Code makes it renewable once for 3 more; after that the holder may only apply to change permit category.

In the US, a child who turns 21 during the 2 years of conditional residence may be included in the investor’s petition to remove conditions (8 CFR 216.6). A person who has reached 21 and was admitted as an investor’s conditional-resident child keeps child status for one later investor petition, filed within a year of the termination of conditional status, if still unmarried (INA 203(h)(5)).

A final rule published on 30 September 2026 takes effect on 30 November 2026 and revises the first provision: a child not included may file separately at any time in the period in which the investor must file, and may do so even if the investor files nothing.

In Dominica, S.R.O. 46 of 2025, gazetted on 27 November 2025, deleted the five-year limit on registering a child under 18 born or adopted after the main applicant obtained citizenship, and the Unit’s FAQ says a minor child may be added without a time restriction. The Antigua and Barbuda page says nothing on what follows when a child passes 30.

Who can fall outside the file

An unmarried 19-year-old son who is not studying, has no disability, depends financially on his parents and lives with them counts in the United States, Canada, Greece and Antigua and Barbuda. Portugal excludes him because both adult limbs require study; Dominica, because its student limb requires higher education and its non-student limb is written for a daughter. A daughter of the same age counts there.

A child who is 22 or older on the Canadian lock-in date is outside the definition unless the disability limb applies, and one who marries during processing loses eligibility. The US also requires the child to remain unmarried to keep child status.

What this article has not established

Quebec’s own regulation on selection was not read (the site returned an error), so the Canadian rows rest on the federal Regulations and IRCC. The Final Action Date for the investor’s country of chargeability was not read.

Only the Unit’s page was read for Antigua and Barbuda; the Citizenship by Investment Act and Regulations were not opened. For Dominica the Government’s laws portal could not be queried, and no regulation later than S.R.O. 46 of 2025 was found.

The consolidated Greek Migration Code was not read; Law 5275/2026 is the latest amendment to article 95 found. For Portugal, which of the factsheet and the statute AIMA applies in a file is not established.

Cyprus, Malta, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and the other Caribbean programmes were not covered, and no programme’s open or closed status was assessed. Antigua and Barbuda’s is the subject of separate reports.