Fiscal Year 2017

The EB-5 quota for Chinese-born applicants remains backlogged. The September 2016 visa list issued by the Department of State has a cutoff date of February 15, 2014 for EB-5 visa applications filed by Chinese-born applicants, and that date has not moved in a number of months. This means only a Chinese-born EB-5 applicant with an I-526 filed before February 15, 2014 may be scheduled for a visa interview and granted conditional resident status.The China EB-5 visa list may close sometime in September, the last month of the fiscal year. It will reopen with the October list (released on or about September 10^th) or with an updated visa list issued at a later date. There is no cutoff date for non-Chinese born EB-5 immigrants.

Expedites

A colleague filed a Freedom of Information Act request with USCIS for data about expediting I-526s for investors’ green cards and I-924s for new Regional Center creation, exemplars, and amendments. USCIS responded that only 18 applications were expedited in the past year. Two of those were mine – one was for a Pakistan citizen with a seriously ill child; the other was for an Afghanistan citizen who helped the U.S. military and was in danger. Of the 18 expedited applications, only two were I-924 RC applications. As these statistics show, it is very unusual to get an expedite.

Use it or Lose it

The USCIS is beginning to issue more notices of intent to revoke approvals of RCs that have had no projects for a number of years. Their rationale is that the RC is not fulfilling its charter to create economic growth.

The USCIS notice to terminate may be withdrawn and RC status verified with evidence that the RC is engaged in due diligence on projects and will soon launch offerings for new projects.

I hope you have enjoyed your summer.

Martin