The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a significant change to its visa availability approach for managing Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor, as part of a continuous effort to boost productivity and improve efficiency in the processing of these petitions. From July 2023, the USCIS Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) will adopt a new strategy in...
The journey towards obtaining a green card via the EB-5 route can often be long and grueling, as evidenced by one of the most recent cases. The applicant in question initially filed their EB-5 I-526 form back on March 14, 2014. After waiting patiently for over three years, they finally received their conditional Green Card on April 24, 2017. The saga didn't end there, though. They then had to...
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program will expire on June 30, 2021, unless Congress reauthorizes it. A lapse in authorization does not affect EB-5 petitions filed by investors who are not seeking a visa under the Regional Center Program. USCIS will reject Form I-924 and I-526 received on or after July 1, 2021, related to the regional center program. Further, USCIS will not act on...
In response to the class action lawsuit (Zhang v. USCIS), USCIS provided certain relief to EB-5 investor clients who were adversely affected by USCIS’s “loan proceeds” policy. Under this policy, the Immigrant Investor Program Office (“IPO”) classified loan proceeds as “indebtedness” instead of "cash" and therefore denied the I-526 petitions of EB-5 applicants who invested...