EB5 Investor Visa Lawyer Blog

The USCIS is proposing changes to the processing of EB 5 investor visa petitions. The proposed changes affect the processing. The investor EB 5 petition is for prospective immigrants who will invest in a commercial enterprise which will create at least ten full time jobs in the United States with qualified workers. An EB 5 investor may petition with a qualified regional center or on their own by opening a new business. Petitions on Form I-526 are for the investors. The EB 5 pilot program sunsets in September of 2012 and no guarantee that it will be extended.

Regional Centers are approved by the government upon petition on Form I-924. These approvals are for two varieties. First, actual applications present shovel ready projects which are ready to be approved and suppor the filing of immediate I-526 petitions. The supporting documents include business plans which are specific, economic analysis of the job's created and the project, the actual investment-capital structure of the investment, the documentation for the offering of the investment, the regional economic impacts which are anticipated and the operating structure and plan of the Regional Center. Second, exemplar applications are those which are not shovel ready but present a feasible project for a business and can seek a preliminary determination for EB 5 compliance.

USCIS, in their proposal for comment which ended on June 17, 2011, proposes to prioritize the applications which are actual and shovel ready. The first is to offer an accelerated target processing time and the second is for eligibility for premium processing. Premium processing offers an expedited processing in which a fee is paid and the turn around time is 15 days. The targeting times may make a difference of many months in the processing.