Child actions must be invoked synchronously. Issue 601 I am also not aware of any recent updates to the current MVC libraries allowing this functionality.
A comment on Issue 601, hints at this functionality being added in MVC vNext, aka. MVC6. Child actions look to be replaced with ViewComponent
which can be invoked asynchronously from a view as below. Full examples here and here
<div>
@await Component.InvokeAsync("YourComponent")
</div>
For more on MVC6 check out, http://www.asp.net/vnext/overview/aspnet-vnext/overview
Note: This answer is just a formality, so the question can be marked as answered